


not alone

by marvelSPhaNdom



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Fluff, Langst, M/M, Mermaids, Mutual Pining, Oblivious, Pidge is a little shit, Pining Keith (Voltron), Pining Lance (Voltron), Slow Burn, Torture, after shiro's missing, post season two
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-04
Updated: 2017-08-09
Packaged: 2018-11-23 14:13:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 36,490
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11404098
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marvelSPhaNdom/pseuds/marvelSPhaNdom
Summary: After shiro's disappearance, lance in order to calm keith down has to share a secret about himself, It's not a big deal, at least that's what They thought.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~“lance if you don't get the hell up right now, Allura is going to kill you!”“Five more minutes mama”, said Lance before someone attacked him with something soft.“I'm not your mom Lance, get the fuck up!”Lance opened his eyes to see Pidge attacking him with the pillow again.Lance grinned ;“you know just because Shiro is truly shirogone now doesn't mean you can use whatever language you like”Pidge shook her head “I can't believe you just made that pun!!”"Oh you're just mad you didn't think of it first”





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I know it's not that good at first but bare with me it gets better as you proceed!

_This is not a good day._ Keith thought as he was taking off his helmet. Not that recently they've had good days, well not since Shiro’s disappearance, but things didn't usually get this bad.

  
 The little bit of sleep he got last night was filled with nightmares of Shiro getting tortured and dying, and then he woke up to the sounds of alarms and allura yelling that they were under attack. They were under attack a lot these days. Defeating Zarkon didn't seem to have made the galra any weaker, in fact if anything galra were attacking them more strongly than ever.  From the information they received there was an heir to Zarkon, a prince named Lotor. He seemed to be smarter than his father and he didn’t care about capturing voltron, he attacked to kill, which made him a dangerous enemy.

  
They had a harsh fight that morning and Kieth had acted more recklessly than ever. He knew he was about to get scolded as he was walking down the hanger towards Allura and Coran.

  
 “That was a close a call”, said Allura.

  
 “But they managed to pull through, so good job pallad...” Coran tried to say before he got interrupted by Lance.

  
 “WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT??”, Lance yelled. Keith was a bit shocked by this. Not that he wasn't expecting it or it was new for Lance to be mad at him. But they were getting along better ever since Shiro went missing. Lance had been very supportive and helped him a lot. They haven't had a fight in weeks. In fact he remembered the first night that Shiro was missing;

  
_he was pacing in his room trying not to punch and kick anything that was near him when someone knocked on his door. He said “what?” as he opened the door to find Lance standing there._

  
_“can I come in for a second?”, Lance asked anxiously with a tone that wasn't his normal. Keith walked back to sit on his bed, allowing the other boy to visit his room for the first time. Lance looked around the room interestingly, he looked like he'd forgotten why he was there._

  
_“so what do you want?”, Keith said impatiently._

_Lance looked really uncomfortable. he had a hand at the back of his neck as if deciding what to say next, "_ _it's just... I just... I wanted to say I know we're rivals and all and we hate each other, but I also know how close you and Shiro are and if you need someone to talk to about it, well... uhm... I'm here for you.”, lance finished while blushing._

  
_Keith felt warm inside. He wanted to say thank you, he wanted to say that he didn't hate him, but all he managed to do was nod while staring at Lance. Lance stared back at him a little before moving. Keith thought he was leaving, he didn't want him to, he wanted to ask Lance not to go, to his surprise Lance didn't, he sat down at the other end of the bed. Neither of them said anything for the next hour. but Keith felt calmer and more relaxed, he eventually fell asleep._

  
 So now he felt a little surprised at Lance yelling. He tried to brush it off as he said,  
“I don't know what you mean”.

  
 “OH YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT I MEAN?OH I'M TALKING ABOUT THAT STUPID MOVE YOU DID OUT THERE! AND THEN BLAMING HUNK FOR IT! HOW DARE YOU YELL AT HUNK LIKE THAT??!”

  
 Hunk was trying to stop Lance, saying that it wasn't important, but lance was staring at him angrily, waiting for an answer. Keith was getting angry himself, _god_ Lance knew how to annoy him, yes he did a stupid thing out there and he was really sorry about yelling at Hunk. so what? _Who the hell was Lance to be yelling at him?!_

  
 “he should've done his job right!” he yelled back at Lance.

  
 “IT WASN'T EVEN HIS JOB! I WAS THE ONE WHO WAS SUPPOSED TO BACK YOU UP!”

  
 This was true, but Keith was not one to back off from a fight specially one with Lance so he yelled, "YEAH WELL I KNEW _YOU_ WEREN'T CAPABLE OF DOING IT, BUT I EXPECTED MORE FROM HUNK THAN TO BE AS _USELESS_ AS _YOU!”_

  
 Okay he had gone _too_ far. This wasn't true at all. Lance was actually really good at fighting and he had saved Keith a lot during fights. He wanted to take this back. when he looked at Lance, he momentarily saw a hurt look and something else like agreement in his face before it vanished quickly. And he coldly said:  
“I'm sorry we're not all as talented as your highness but that still isn't a good reason to yell at Hunk”

  
 Keith felt horrible not only had he hurt sweet kind Hunk, he had offended Lance too. _This is definitely not a good day._

  
 "Well you all worked hard and deserve a rest, but I need to talk to all of you this afternoon, paladins.” Allura said while sharing a look with Coran.

  
 "Come on paladins I've prepared a healthy lunch for you”, said Coran.

  
 “Good! I'm so hungry I could eat a whole cow right now!”, said Hunk.

  
 Lance looked at him suspiciously and said: “Hunk you're my main man but if you touch a hair on Kaltenecker, we're done for.”

  
 Everybody laughed at this and the mood got better. But Keith still felt terrible he had to apologize at least to Hunk. They ate lunch together and each went to their rooms to rest a bit before they went back to common room. Allura and Coran waited for them to sit down and for lance to stop rambling stupid before allura started talking: “as you all know, we've been under attack by Galra lately”

  
 "Well that's the understatement of the year”, interrupted Lance.

  
 “Lance what I want to say is important please don't interrupt me again”

  
 “Sure thing, princess”, lance  said while winking at her.

  
 Everyone sighed at lance. Keith rolled his eyes. Recently he got really annoyed whenever Lance flirted with Allura. As to Why? He had no idea.

  
 Allura continued; “anyway, as I was saying Galra are attacking us more and more lately, and it's a necessity for us to be able to form voltron again. Unfortunately we have no idea were Shiro is, even though everybody have been trying to find him, there is no news about him”

  
 Pidge frowned at this. They all knew how annoyed she was that she hadn't been able to find any information on Shiro. The first few days after shiro went missing she was inseparable from her laptop, she wouldn't sleep, she wouldn't eat, until Lance told everyone else that they should hold an intervention, and they made Pidge to go rest and eat a bit. Even after weeks she looked horrible, there were circles around her eyes and she looked much smaller than before, and it wasn't just her they all looked terrible. Even Hunk looked thinner than before.

  
 “And even though we are _not_ giving up on him, we are still vulnerable without volrton. we need to rearrange the lions, so we are able to form voltron. From this afternoon we will start trying to bond with our new lions. Shiro had already told me that if anything should happen to him he wants Keith to lead voltron, so Keith you will be flying the black lion. Lance you will change to the red lion so I can pilot the blue lion.”

  
 Keith felt a rage so strong. Shiro was missing and all she cared was the stupid voltron.  
“what?” to his surprise it wasn't his voice that said that it was actually Lance's. For a moment there Keith felt a strong liking to Lance.

  
 "Lance, I told you before it is necessary that we would be able to form voltron” said Allura.

  
 "No I get that part and as stupid as I think it is I understand that Shiro wanted mullet to take his place but why the hell should _I_ give up blue? why can't you pilot red?”, Lance almost yelled. 

  
 Allura impatiently answered; “ because the blue lion is the most acceptable of new paladins also you've been forming voltron so you already have a small bond with the red lion so there is a higher chance she would accept you than me”

  
 Keith couldn't believe what he was seeing. _Shiro_ was missing, he was possibly getting tortured right now and all these people cared about was what lion they got, what color they liked better. He felt so angry! How could they be this heartless?

  
 “SO YOU'RE JUST GONNA REPLACE HIM? THAT'S ALL THAT MATTERS TO YOU?ISN'T IT? FORMING VOLTRON? AFTER EVERYTHING HE'S DONE YOU'RE NOT EVEN GONNA LOOK FOR HIM? WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU??”

  
 Everyone were looking at him.

  
 Coran angrily said: “don't talk to princess with that tone”

  
 But Allura raised her hand to stop Coran and looked at him. “how dare you suggest that I don't want to find Shiro? I... no _we_ all have been doing everything in our power to find him but there isn't anything on him it's like he had vanished. We need voltron not just to defend our selves but also to find shiro. How could you think that I want to find him any less than you do. I understand how you feel about him but ...“

the words pour out if him before he could control them; “NO _YOU DON'T!_ NONE OF YOU KNOWS HOW I FEEL! YOU ALL HAVE SOMEBODY ELSE, YOU HAVE FAMILY, FRIENDS, SHIRO IS ALL I'VE GOT! HE'S MY ONLY FAMILY! BEFORE HIM I HAD NOBODY! BEFORE HIM I WAS ALL ALONE! BEFORE HIM NOBODY EVER WANTED TO BE NEAR ME! SO HOW COULD ANY OF YOU POSSIBLY UNDERSTAND HOW I FEEL WHEN YOU'VE NEVER BEEN _UNWANTED?!!”_

 He felt like his face was wet. He was crying. Everyone was looking at him with shocked faces. He didn't blame them, hell he was shocked _himself._ He never expressed his feeling let alone be crying in front of others. It made him feel vulnerable, exposed and right now it made him feel like he was breaking to pieces, but suddenly something was putting those pieces back in place. Someone was hugging him really tight, _too_ tight, but he didn't complain, he needed this.

  
 "I understand how you _feel”_  
_Lance._ Lance was hugging him. He tried to get out of the hug while saying “lance I know you're trying to be understanding but”

  
 “No that's not it” Lance said while hugging him tighter than before. Keith didn't tried to push him away this time. This wasn't the normal Lance. _This_ as weird as it was felt right.

  
 Lance continued; “I understand how you feel, I understand how it is to feel unwanted. Cause ... cause I'm adopted, my birth parents they didn't want me. In fact they left me to die alone in a road but people found me. So I know how it is to be unwanted. But keith you're not unwanted any more. we're your fiends no we're your family. And we're all going to find Shiro, what princess said it's only temporarily. we're gonna get shiro back, I _promise.”_

  
 Everyone else nodded at this. Keith didn't feel angry anymore. He'd stopped crying. He felt calm, he wasn't sure this was because what Lance said or how he had hugged him. But why would Lance hugging him make him feel better? No this was definitely what he said.

 Keith never knew Lance was an orphan too. From the looks on everybody else's faces he could tell that they didn't either. Keith suddenly realized he was still in lance’s arms so he stepped back and at the same time so did Lance. They were both blushing. Lance had tears in his eyes.

  
 "Lance how come you never told me that?” Hunk asked.

  
 Lance shrugged his shoulder; “I don't know. it was a long time ago. And it really doesn't matter. My parents my real parents they adopted me and they raised me and that's what counts.” Lance looked a bit uncomfortable now like he didn't want to say anymore.

  
 “Yeah, it is” Pidge said. With one of her rare kind smiles.

  
 “Well, paladins as I always say there isn't any problem that can't be solved by food”

  
 "Coran, I'm pretty sure that's what _I_ always say plus this situation needs something better than your food goo , no offence!” Hunk said before pulling both Lance and Keith into a half hug and running to kitchen.

  
 "How about watching one of your earthling movies while we wait?” Allura said. She seemed to have given up on getting any work done that day.

  
 “I know exactly what we should watch" Lance declared before starting to run.

  
 “Lance if you touch my stuff again I'll kill you” yelled Pidge before running after him.

  
 They ended up watching 'G _uardians of the Galaxy',_  which was both relatable to them and funny. But Keith wasn't gonna tell Lance  _that._ Lance was back to his normal self again. But Keith couldn't stop himself from staring at him from time to time. Lance caught his eyes a few times but only smiled at him which was even weirder than Keith staring.

 The movie finished just as Hunk announced that dinner was ready, and they went to eat. Wow Hunk was really talented with food how he managed to make all these amazing things was beyond Keith.

  
 “Hunk you're a genius!” Lance said while eating.

  
 "Thanks man! So what did you guys watch?”

  
 “guar..dian..ov...gal.axy..” Pidge managed to say between her bites.

  
 “Man I like that movie specially Groot, he's so adorable.” said Hunk.

  
 “My favourite is Rocket. he's such a genius!” said Pidge.

  
 "Of course that's you're favourite character pidgey! he's a psychotic nerd like yourself...ouch.” Pidge kicked Lance beneath the table, before getting one of her evil grins on her face and asking; “so what's your favourite?”

  
 Before Lance could answer Hunk said: “obviously Peter”

  
 But Lance said: “what? No! The best character is definitely Gamora, the hot alien”

  
 Pidge seemed to grin even further at that if that was even possible.

  
 Keith said: “Are you crazy? Peter is way more cooler!”

  
 Pidge snorted.

  
 “What's up with you?!!” Lance asked.

  
 Pidge answered: “ wow!! You don't even realise that they're literally you...”

  
 But Allura interrupted her “well since you all seem to have eaten enough to be debating nonsense, it's time for you to go to bed. We have a lot to do tomorrow. We will start with our new lions tomorrow”

  
 Lance looked like he was about to protest again but thought better of it and stopped.  
So they all started walking to their rooms.

 But keith pulled Hunk to a corner.  
“I just wanted to say I'm sorry for this morning”

  
 Hunk smiled: “it's okay man we're all under pressure”

  
 Keith felt more ashamed at that.

  
 Keith walked to his room while thinking about Lance. he was thinking about Lance when he was falling sleep. Keith had felt so at home in Lance's arms. _so safe!_  Lance seemed so different when he'd hugged him. It wasn't necessarily a bad different but Keith didn't know what it meant.


	2. Chapter 2

 What made Lance hug Keith?! he had no idea. In fact five minutes earlier he had been still mad at Keith about that morning. But then Keith had said those things, and suddenly all Lance's anger evaporated. then Keith had cried. _Keith_ crying!! he had looked so broken , and Lance's world started tumbling down. He felt like his own heart was shattering. He wanted to hug Keith and tell him it was gonna be alright and so he did. Lance wasn't sure exactly why Keith crying had affected him so much but he was sure of one thing he never wanted to see Keith in tears ever again.

  
 He knew everyone were kind of shocked at him being adopted. But it wasn't exactly a secret. If anyone would ask he'd tell them. but he knew Hunk was gonna interrogate him as soon as he found the chance. And it was okay. It was a long time ago. he'd gotten over it. Was he still a bit mad that his birth parents didn't want him? _yeah_ and did he still remember those awful few years at orphanages and with foster parents? _definitely yes,_ but then his family had adopted him and Lance had gotten a lovely home with the best parents in the world. And man did he miss them! Specially his sweet mama whose hugs were even better than Hunk's.

  
 Afterwards he found his gaze  going to Keith all that night. And to his surprise Keith stared back at him.

  
 It was now that he was laying in his bed that he realised maybe it was because he had made Keith uncomfortable. Now that he thought about it Keith had tried to push Lance away when he'd hugged him not only once but twice. _Man, keith probably hates me now if he didn't before_. These were his last thoughts before he fell asleep.

 “lance if you don't get the hell up right now, Allura is going to kill you!”

  
 “Five more minutes mama”, said Lance before someone attacked him with something soft.

  
 “I'm not your mom Lance, get the fuck up!”

  
 Lance opened his eyes to see Pidge attacking him with the pillow again.  
Lance grinned ;“you know just because Shiro is truly _shirogone_ now doesn't mean you can use whatever language you like”

  
 Pidge shook her head “I can't believe you just made that pun!!”

  
 "Oh you're just mad you didn't think of it first”

  
 “Just get up”, said Pidge before leaving his room.

  
 He wasn't in the mood to do his normal routine, actually he hadn't been in the mood for it ever since Shiro went missing. So he just changed his clothes and started walking toward kitchen. When he got there he could hear Hunk and Pidge talking; “man I don't know what was more surprising Keith crying or Lance hugging Keith?!!”

  
 "well it was about time” Lance could hear Pidge’s smirk in her voice.

  
 Hunk said: “don't start...”

  
 In that moment Lance chimed in while saying: “haven't you people ever heard of closing the god damn door?”

  
 They both looked at him but before either could answer someone said: “did you... did you just quoted _panic! At the disco_?!” _oh wow_  Keith looked so shocked.

  
 "Don't worry mullet! I'm not trying to steal you're place in the team as the emo one!”

  
 Hunk and Pidge laughed. But Keith just frowned a little before sitting down. Lance wanted to put his hands at Keith’s brows and make him stop frowning. _Wait, what?_ Since when did he care what mood was Keith in? It must be the after effects of last night, he told himself. Trying to distract himself from Keith, he asked Coran: "wow princess is always scolding me for being late and now she's even more late I am?!”

  
 Coran answered: “actually princess has been up for hours, she's been trying to make blue let down her shield”

  
 "Wait why's her shield up?”

  
 "It appears that the lions have heard our yesterday’s conversations about rearrangements and they're not particularly happy about it. When we went to hanger this morning blue, red, and black had their shields up.”

  
 Lance couldn't help but feel a little happy about this. He'd accepted that he had to try and work with red since allura said that, and her word was law around here. But he still didn't like giving up blue and He would feel betrayed if blue would give him up that soon.

  
 Lance hadn't hear what Pidge had said but it must've been funny, because Keith was laughing at her. One of those rare laughs he did when he found something genuinely funny, _man he should laugh more_. It made his face light up, showing up his dimples and his eyes would.... look right at him. Keith's eyes were looking right at lance. Someone shook his shoulder; “Lance?”

  
 Lance couldn't stop looking at Keith; “huh?!”

  
 Hunk shook him again; “hey earth to Lance! Well more like space to Lance!”

  
 Lance finally took his eyes off Keith; “what...buddy?!”, he felt hazy.

  
 Hunk said; “I called your name like seven times, do you want the rest of your goo?”

  
 Lance pushed his plate in front of Hunk; “nope you can have it!”

  
 Since Coran wanted to repair some ship parts and Pidge and Hunk didn't need to bond with new lions, Lance and Keith started walking to hangers by themselves. Neither of them said anything. Even though Lance loved talking, he really liked being quiet with Keith, it made him calm. he'd grown very fond of all the silent moments he shared with keith over the past few weeks. But he would never admit that.

  
 “So... I guess I'll see you at lunch?!”, Keith said when they arrived at their lions.  
 "Yup”, Lance nodded.

 To say that they're morning attempts were a true _fiasco,_ was sugar coating it. By lunch none of them had made any improvement. None of the lions had let down their shield by an inch. Sometimes he heard Keith yelling at black saying things like they needed to save Shiro. But black didn't responded to him at all. Finally Keith and princess started walking toward kitchen for lunch. “you coming?”, Keith asked him.

  
 "I just want to check on blue for a minute” Lance answered before mentally laughing at the little innuendo Keith had just said, when suddenly another picture of Keith saying the same thing with a very different tone came to his mind. He was glad the other two had left because he was blushing uncontrollably. _Where the hell did that thought come from?_ So yes maybe Keith was kinda hot, but he had never thought about Keith like this before, okay maybe that one time Keith came back from the blade in _that_ suit, he momentarily let his mind slip but then he had forgotten about it since he was really worried about Keith's injuries. So why the hell was he having weird thoughts about his rival now? He tried to shake the thoughts out of his head by focusing at the task in hand.

  
 He wanted to talk with blue about Allura. he walked towards her; “hey, girl!”. Her shield was immediately down. She moved her head and pressed it against Lance's for a moment before opening her mouth. He went in and sat in his chair. “I want to talk to you about allura”, he could feel her protesting strongly. “blue l don't like this any more than you do, but you need to let her in”, again she protested. “you know we need voltron?” she purred in agreement. “but you won't let Allura in?”, again she purred in agreement. He could feel that she wasn't going to change her mind. She would never let Allura in. He heard another purr. ”will you let anyone else pilot you?”, she didn't answer. Lance took this as a hesitant yes. “who? Hunk? Pidge?” she protested loudly at each name. ”don't tell me Keith?”, but she protested again. “that only leaves Coran!” she didn't say anything. “you'll let Coran pilot you?” she gave him a weak purr as a yes. “thanks blue!”

  
 He said excited as he ran out of the hanger. Not that he was excited about giving blue to someone else, but he felt like he was helping the team and that made him happy. Besides if he had to choose someone to pilot blue, he'd choose Coran too.

  
 "guys! Guys! Blue just told me she'd let Coran pilot her!”, he yelled as he entered the kitchen.

  
 "What?”, asked Allura as everyone stared at him.

  
 "I was trying to ask her to open up to you but then she said she'd only let Coran pilot her”

  
 “Very well, then Coran you need to go to her right now”, she said bitterly after a few moments.

  
 Coran sent her an apologetic look before getting up from his. Lance went with him and said: "I'm gonna introduce you”

  
 When they got to the hanger, blue didn't have her shield up but she'd closed her mount. “blue this is Coran”. he added; “coran the gorgeous man” jokingly before putting the other man's hand on her nose. He could already feel them bonding a little.

  
 "so I'm gonna leave you two to it then”  
As he started walking out of the hanger he heard coran saying: “you know he's my favourite paladin too”, Lance smiled.

  
 After lunch, once again Lance and Keith walked towards the hanger together.

  
 Coran and blue were nowhere around which meant that he was already flying blue. But neither Lance or Keith seemed to have any more luck than they had that morning. Lance tried asking, yelling, even begging a little at red but she simply wouldn't respond to him.  
After hours Lance was finally done he was too tired to deal with this any more. He looked around and saw Keith was done too. It was childish but Lance was glad that Keith had failed too, he didn't want to be the only one who'd failed. Keith was sitting next to black's shield on the ground and staring at his knife. It was a thing he did when he was thinking, Lance had noticed.

  
 Lance sat down next to him. “ so there _is_ something the great Keith Kogane can't do!”

  
 Keith sighed. He looked sad and frustrated. Lance didn't like seeing him that way; “hey it's fine we'll have better luck tomorrow”

  
 “ I know he wanted me to lead voltron, but I don't know if I can! I mean look at me I can't even work with the lion!”

  
 Lance couldn't believe it. Keith, _K_ _eith_ of all people was having self doubt. _Keith_ who could do any thing perfectly. “maybe you don't have to do it alone”,  _maybe we could do this together_ he wanted to add but something moved behind them. Lance yelped.

  
 "what the ...”

  
 The black lion had let her shield down. And her mouth was open in front of them.

  
 "Come on”, Keith said as they both entered the lion. When they got to the seat there was something different. It was one chair but it looked like two chairs that were really close to each other. So they both sat down. Lance heard black purring in his mind. “did you...”, “yeah”, Keith answered before he could finish. Suddenly they were staring at each other. They were really close to each other sitting like this.

  
 “We should probably go tell the others”, said Keith.

  
 Lance felt like he was coming out of a trance so he only nodded. They both started walking toward the hanger. They found everyone in the common room.

  
 Hunk asked; “any luck?”

  
 Lance and Keith shared a glance before Lance said: “ well sort of?!!”

  
 Allura asked; “what does that exactly mean?”

  
 Keith and Lance shared another glance, and this time Keith said: “black opened up to us”

  
 This seemed to get Pidge's interest; “what do you mean to _us?!”_

  
 They started telling the others what had happened but neither mentioned anything about the conversation they were having before it happened. After they finished telling the others. “this had never happened before", said both Allura and Coran together.

  
 Out of nowhere Pidge started laughing; “this is so gay!!”

  
 "What?! Exactly what part of flying an alien war machine is gay?!”, Lance argued.

  
 “Oh please! This is so _so_ gay” Pidge answered still laughing.

  
 Lance looked at Keith silently asking for his help, but Keith just stood quietly and started blushing.

  
  "Whatever!”, said Lance while sitting down.

  
 “Well , it's _pretty_ gay”, Keith whispered so quietly next to him that even Lance could hardly hear it. And now it was Lance's turn to blush.

  
 “But then who will pilot red?”, Hunk asked. Lance sent him a thankful look for changing the subject.

  
 “I assume I could give it a try since I'm the only one left”, Allura's confidence seemed to have shaken a bit after blue's rejection.

  
 “Then it's settled, now off to bed everybody, chop chop!”, said coran. They all went to their rooms.

  
 Lance was actually pretty excited about tomorrow. The idea of piloting black with Keith seemed pretty interesting. And Lance felt like this had more to do with the Keith part than the lion part. Since when was he excited to spend more time with Keith? Again his last thoughts before falling asleep were about Keith. this was becoming a habit to him.

 

 “Lance buddy, can you wake up I need to talk to you”

  
 Lance opened his eyes to see Hunk. “Hunk my man I hope you realise how much you mean to me, because if It was any one else I would murder them in spot for waking me up this early.”

  
 “Lance it's important!”

  
 He could tell Hunk was gonna ask about the whole being adopted thing. He sighed as he got up and started giving a brief summary to Hunk before he'd ask. He didn't went to detail and he could tell Hunk wasn't satisfied with this short version. But Lance hadn't even told this much to his mama. This was one of the few subjects he felt uncomfortable talking about. Hunk probably felt this because he didn't push any further. They both went to get breakfast.

  
 When they all finished eating breakfast. Allura started giving everyone jobs to do except Lance and Keith.

  
 “Princess not that I'm complaining about having a chill day but what should Keith and I do?”

  
 “Lance I thought that was obvious, you and Keith are going to do some bonding exercises. If you want to be able to fly the black lion together you need to have a stronger bond with each other”, answered Allura.

  
 Pidge snorted; “ but if they bond any more they're gonna have babies together!!“

  
 Before Lance could answer her, Allura said: “Pidge I'm really disappointed in you, you're starting to become as annoying as Lance!” this only made Pidge smirk more.

  
 Frankly Lance would've shed a tear and told Pidge, he was proud of her, if he hadn't been the one who was getting harassed by her right now.


	3. Chapter 3

 Keith woke up with excitement. For some unexplainable reason, he couldn't wait to fly with Lance, he couldn't remember the last time that he was actually excited about something. Why was he this excited about spending time with _loud, obnoxious Lance?_ He had no idea, well he actually had one idea but that was just _absurd!_

 He still remember how Lance had calmed him two days ago. He was sure that if it was anyone else trying it, they would've failed miserably.

 He remembered when they were sitting in black, how close they were, how he couldn't stop looking at Lance’s lips, how for a second he wanted to kiss Lance!

 He remembered last night when they were telling the others about what happened with black, none of them had mentioned the conversation they were having before. Keith hadn't said anything because he didn't want to share the intimate moment with others. But what about Lance? Maybe he just wanted another bonding moment he could pretend didn't happen, or maybe just maybe he too wanted to have this moment to himself. Maybe that idea wasn't _that_ absurd after all.

 He went to kitchen. They all ate breakfast. Allura told them all what to do. Pidge was being a little shit as usual. Wow Lance seemed to get really annoyed by her comments. .

 “Keith can I talk to you alone?”, Hunk said. Keith nodded so they left the kitchen.

 “Keith, when you're doing the mind melting exercise with Lance, could you... could you try to dig a little about his time before the adoption?”

“what? No!”, Keith would never do something like this to Lance. He really cared about his privacy so he wasn't gonna invade someone else's.

 “look man, I wouldn't ask you if it wasn't important. it's just that I know when Lance doesn't talk about something, it's because he's really hurt by it. So will you do it?”

 Keith nodded reluctantly, but only because he didn't like the idea of Lance being hurt.

 They went back to kitchen and Lance gave them a funny look. Then everyone went to do their chores.

 Next thing he knew he was sitting across Lance on the floor they were doing the mind melt thingy. Lance was thinking about his family, he had a large family but he loved each and everyone of them. _Man, this boy has a big heart_. Keith tried to look more back in Lance’s head to find something about before his adoption. And he almost saw a little Lance crying before …

 “What the hell are you doing?”, Lance had taken his head band off and he looked pissed.

 “I was just trying to …”

 “Hunk asked you to poke around my head hole, didn't he? _Kei_ _th_ I thought _you_ of all people would never agree to this!”, Lance said before storming off towards his room.

 Okay, this was clearly a mistake, he shouldn't have listened to Hunk. Lance would tell them when he was ready.

 “Lance wait, I'm sorry!”, Keith said sincerely.

 Lance stopped. He looked really shocked. Keith realized he had never apologized to Lance about anything before.

 “I shouldn't have done it, I'm sorry.” He said again.

 “Its fine! But don't try it again!”, Lance said crossing his arms.

 Keith nodded. They went back and tried the maze instead. This time they were weirdly better at it. time seemed to fly when he was with Lance, Before they knew it, it was time for lunch. They went to the kitchen. Everyone were waiting for them there. Lance was a bit cold with Hunk at first but after a few minutes all was forgiven. No one could stay mad at Hunk for long. Hunk kept sending apologetic looks at him.

 It seemed that Allura had bonded with red and they had already flied together. This made Keith sad. He didn't want to lose red, but this was temporarily so he tried to forget it.

 This meant that the only ones that hadn't flied with their new lions were Lance and Keith, which is exactly what Allura told them to do that afternoon.

 Lance and Keith walked to the hanger, they both stopped to check on their lions first before going to black. she gave them a purr as they climbed inside her. “so who’s gonna sit where?”, asked Lance.

 “I feel like I should sit here and you there”

 “Oh you feel like that ? I see what you're doing here, mullet! that way you get to do all the main piloting”

 “Lance will you just shut up and trust me?!”

 “No can't do, last time you said those words to me, you threw me off a cliff, we're doing this my way!”, Lance sat down. Keith rolled his eyes and sat down next to him. After a few minutes even Lance had to admit this wasn't working. Keith had no idea what he was doing and Lance’s flying, well let's just say Keith was happy he wasn't Hunk at that moment. “fine we'll try it your way”, Lance said and they switched places and started flying. This felt more right. It wasn't like each was doing it alone, it was like both decided on what to do next.  They flied for a few hours. by the time they were done, they could really work in sync together.

 When they were done it was really late. They both felt like they needed sleep more than food goo, so they walked to their rooms. They had agreed to take turns with the black bayard. And Lance had let Keith have it for the first day which definitely had _nothing_ to do with the fact that that day was almost over. Keith thought of how Lance’s eyes actually shone during the flight before he fell asleep.

 Next morning he woke up earlier and took a shower. he had a towel around his waist and was trying to dry his hair with another towel when someone walked in his room.

 “Hey, Keith can I have the…”, Lance just stopped mid sentence and stormed off the room.

 “Hey! what did you want?!”, Keith tried to ask but Lance was long gone. Keith sighed. How was it possible that out of everyone in the universe, Keith had managed to grow feelings for this idiot?

 Lance was weirdly quiet during breakfast. Coran and Hunk tried to start conversations with him but he just remained silent. Allura told them they should work on their bond and their flight all day.

 Lance, Keith, Coran and Allura walked towards the hanger together. Coran kept trying to lighten the mood but failed. Keith was beginning to worry now, Lance hadn't said a word all morning. “Are you okay?”, Keith asked him when they were walking alone to black. Lance didn't answer. He just fastened his pace. _Is he mad at me?_  Their flying wasn't as good as yesterday, he couldn't help but feel like Lance was distracted. It was around afternoon when Keith finally said: “Lance focus!”

 “I AM FOCUSING!”

 “No you're not, you're clearly distracted by something”

 “OH SHUT IT MULLET! YOU KNOW WHAT?! I'M DONE FOR TODAY!”

 Lance was leaving the lion when Keith asked; “Don't you want the bayard?”

 “KEEP THAT FUCKING BAYARD!”, Lance yelled.

 Okay Lance was definitely mad at him about something, was it something he had done? He couldn't think of anything that he'd done that day that would annoy Lance.

 Lance was missing all afternoon. He didn't even show up for dinner.

 “Is something wrong with Lance?”, Allura asked Hunk.

 “I don't…”

 “I think it's my fault”, Keith interrupted Hunk.

 “what did you do?”, Hunk and Pidge asked at the same time.

 “I'll just go apologise”

 This wasn't fair, Keith hadn't done anything wrong or at least not one that he could remember. But he'd had enough of this. He would just say sorry and get it over with.

 He knocked at Lance’s door but there wasn't an answer. “Lance open the door I need to talk to you”, no answer. he knocked harder, “Lance I know you're in there open the damn door!”, No answer. “LANCE”, “if you don't open the door right now I'll break it!”

 “okay okay! just don’t break my door!”, Lance opened the door and went inside. Keith followed. Lance’s room wasn't what he was expecting. The walls were blue, the room itself seemed to radiate a calm feeling, or was that Lance? Before his mind would drift off any further, he looked at Lance; “whatever it is that I did, I'm sorry about it”

 Lance looked stunned. A few minutes passed before Lance finally said: “but you didn't do anything wrong!”

 “But you were mad at me all day”

  _“NO ...you_ were right I was just... _distracted”_

 “So do you wanna keep the fucking bayard?!” Keith tried to lighten the mood as he offered the other boy the bayard.

 Lance laughed before taking the bayard. “yeah, but I'm keeping it tomorrow too!”

 Keith was too happy to disagree to this.

 “Let's go eat dinner I'm starving!”, Lanced pushed him out of the room.

 As they entered kitchen, Pidge said: “aww lover’s quarrel!”

 “I'm going to kill a pigeon!”, Lance actually looked like he was about to attack Pidge, but he sat at the table; “after I eat”

 Once Lance was back everyone seemed to be in a better mood. Finally Allura announced; “paladins tomorrow we're all are going to do some bonding exercises to help us be able to form voltron”

 “Well this should be interesting! “, Pidge said with a tone that made Lance squint at her.

 Next morning they ate breakfast together and did a few exercises together. Lance was more loud than usual. Keith felt like maybe Lance was anxious about something.

 Finally they all sat down together to do the mind melting exercises. After a few minutes Keith felt Pidge looking inside his head. She was poking at any thing she could find, but before he could said anything, Lance asked; “what exactly are you looking for, Pidge?”

 “Oh you know! just some _gay thoughts!",_  she winked at Lance.

 “that's it! I'm not doing this anymore!”, Lance stood up.

 Wow Pidge really knew how to get under Lance’s skin.

 “Will you calm down?! she was just talking about me!”, Keith said.

 “What? What do you mean?!”

 “Well she was just poking around my thoughts and I'm gay, so you know gay thoughts “

 “WHAT?”

“what?”

 “You're gay???”

 “Well, yeah”

 Lance looked so surprised. Keith found it really funny.

 Pidge burst out laughing; “you didn't know he was gay?! Lance how blind can you be? I realized it 3 seconds after I met him!”

 “me too!”, Hunk added.

 Allura looked at Coran before saying; “if gay means what we think it means we found out real quick too.”

 “And no one thought to tell _me?”_

 Keith wanted to ask Lance why did it matter so much. But Pidge didn't give him a chance; “sorry, we just assumed you know. it's just that the only way it would be more obvious was for him running around the halls saying he was gay!”

 Keith smiled, because recently he'd wanted to do exactly that when thinking about Lance.

 “this is ridiculous, Lance sit down we need to finish this exercise!”, said Allura.

 “yeah Lance”, Pidge added with a grin.

 Lance looked carefully at all of them before landing his eyes on Pidge; “nope, not happening, not doing that! Sorry princess!”

 Lance gave Keith a little stare before leaving. Keith had never seen the ocean but he was sure at that moment Lance’s eyes looked like one.

 Lance didn't come to lunch. In the afternoon they were supposed to be bonding with their lions, but Lance didn't show up to that either. Keith was sure this had something to do with the revelation that he was gay, but why would Lance be mad about that? A painful thought came to his mind: could Lance be _homophobic?_ No Keith wouldn't accept this not after seeing how cool Lance was about him being part alien. He remembered when he first told everyone;

_Shiro was standing beside him supportively and they both told what they had found out. Allura had left the room immediately, but everyone else said they were shocked, but this wouldn't change how they felt about him, he was still their friend, everyone except Lance. Pidge asked him: “ Lance you're being uncharacteristically quiet!“_

_“huh no , I just already knew!"_

_“WHAT?” everyone else yelled at Lance, including Keith._

_“Don't attack me! look I've seen how Keith can work with galra tech, he really understands it, and he used his hand as a galra hand print. Well... I'm not that stupid you know, but it was just a hunch until now”_

_It was really important for Keith that Lance knew and it didn't change how he acted towards him. Not that Lance could yell at him anymore than before but it still counted._

 No, there was just no way that Lance after being supportive of his Galra heritage would have a problem with him being gay.

 Keith decided that he was just gonna ask him. So he started walking to Lance’s room. He saw Hunk in the way. Hunk looked like he'd failed at talking to Lance.

 Keith knocked at Lance’s door. “Hunk I already told you …”, Lance stopped when he saw Keith; “oh Keith, I guess come in”.


	4. Chapter 4

 Lance had been super excited about doing the exercises with Keith, but Keith just _had_ to start poking around his head. Lance was really angry at him, he knew Keith was doing it for Hunk but still how dared he, _Keith_ the _I will die before I tell you anything about myself_ guy try to pry on his personal memories! He was so raged, he didn't think he could ever talk to Keith again. But then Keith apologised, and It wasn't what he said or the sincere tone in his voice, it was the look he gave Lance with those puppy dog eyes that did the job. Lance took one look at those eyes and he forgot everything completely. Keith’s eyes were so pretty and their color! Who the hell actually had purple eyes?! And Lance was weak for those eyes.

 They flew the lion together, everything was fine until next morning. Lance went to get the bayard from Keith. He didn't knock he just went inside saying “hey Keith can I...” and then he saw Keith. Water was dripping from his hair to his wet body and the only thing he was wearing was a towel. Lance knew that if he stayed another second he wouldn't have control over _any_ part of his body. So he just turned around and ran out of the room. He locked himself in his own room. he was blushing heavily. This wasn't _fair!_ How could someone so pretty also be so hot? Keith should be _illegal._

 But this did settle one thing: he _liked_ Keith, of all the people he just had to have a crush on his rival, his enemy , the guy he wanted to hate. it wasn't fair; how come Keith got to win everything including _his own damn heart!_

 Lance tried to calm himself. What would Keith think after he'd run like that? _m_ _an he is probably mocking me right now_. But Lance wouldn't back off, Lance would go out and face Keith. Okay maybe he could just go out but not face Keith?! In fact he wasn't gonna look at Keith again , he didn't know what thoughts he would have if he did. He tried to focus all his energy on _not_ thinking about Keith .

 This proved to be harder than he initially thought, considering he had to share a lion with the other boy. As they were walking to their lion, Keith asked him; “are you okay?” with such a fond voice that Lance almost spilled his guts; _no you're driving me mad_. to stop himself from saying anything, he started walking to the lion faster. And then Keith was sitting so close to him that he couldn't help but let his mind slip. After a while Keith obviously felt something was wrong with him; “Lance focus”, “I AM FOCUSING” _I'm not focusing at what I should but I still am focusing at something_. Lance thought to himself.

 “No you're not! you're clearly distracted by something”

 Was he that obvious or was Keith just _that_ good at reading him? _add that to the list of things he's good at_. He suddenly frozed; if Keith could read him that well, it would only take him a little while before he knew about Lance’s crush on him. He would probably make fun of Lance if he knew but what if it was _worse?_ What if it made him _uncomfortable?_ What if he didn't want to be friends anymore?

 “OH SHUT IT MULLET! YOU KNOW WHAT I'M DONE FOR TODAY!”, he had to get away from Keith before he suspected anything.

 “Don't you want the bayard?” that bayard? The stupid thing that got him in this mess in the first place? For all he cared Keith could keep it for _ever._

 “KEEP THAT FUCKING BAYARD!”, Lance yelled.

 He went to his room. After a few hours he felt calmer. _yes_ maybe he had overreacted a little bit, but in his defence it wasn't everyday that he found out he had crush on his rival!

 Except Keith wasn't his rival anymore. In fact lately they've been friends, really good friends. the situation wasn't _that_ bad! so what if he had a crush on Keith? he'd get over it. Nothing he hadn't done before. it wasn't like Lance was in love with the guy _...right?!_

 Someone knocked at his door at that moment. He didn't want to answer; He had important things to sort out. “Lance open the door I need to talk to you”, it was _Keith!_ There was no way he'd open the door now! “Lance I know you're in there open the damn door.” “LANCE”, “if you don't open the door right know I'll break it!”. Lance considered this for a second; was this a bluff or would Keith actually break the door? _Yeah he totally would!_

 “Okay okay! just don’t break my door!”, Lance let Keith come inside. Keith was looking around curiously. He kind of looked adorable. He finally said something; “whatever it is that I did, I'm sorry about it”

 _What?_ Why was _he_ sorry?

 “But you didn't do anything wrong!”

 “But you mad at me all day”

  
 He felt a pressure in his chest. He'd made Keith feel like he's done something _wrong._

 _“NO..._ you were right I was just... _distracted”_

 “So… do you wanna keep the fucking bayard?”

 Did Keith just try to make a joke?! Lance couldn't help laughing; “yeah, but I'm keeping it tomorrow too!”

 They went to dinner together. “aww lover’s quarrel!” _Pidge! that little shit!_

 “I'm going to kill a pigeon”, _wait_ Lance had to stop reacting to Pidge's comments so much or they knew something was up with him; “after I eat”

 After dinner Allura said tomorrow they all would do some exercises. _Bonding exercises?_ just what he needed; for everyone to see images of Keith in his mind.

 “Well this should be interesting!", Pidge was definitely up to something.

 He stayed awake almost all night. Trying to learn how to focus his thoughts. He was not letting Pidge tell everyone.

 Next morning they did some exercises together and it was time for mind melting they all sat down together. Lance had it under control, until he felt like Pidge was searching in his mind for something, _Oh hell no!;_  “what exactly are you looking for, Pidge?”

 “Oh you know! just some gay thoughts!”, _oh god, she knew!_ Lance was sure of it. He took off the head band quickly; “that's it! I'm not doing this anymore!”, Lance tried to leave.

 "Will you calm down?! she was just talking about me!”, _Keith knew?!_ How? How did he found out?

 “What? What do you mean?!”

  
 “Well; she was just poking around my thoughts and I'm gay, so you know gay thoughts “ _oh thank god_ he didn't knew… _wait_ “WHAT?”

 “what?”

 “You're gay???”

 “Well, yeah”

 Lance was surprised. At least until now, he could pretend Keith would hate the idea of them, but now?! what's stopping him from running around yelling he liked Keith?!

 Pidge burst out laughing; “you didn't know he was gay?! Lance how blind can you be? I realized it 3 seconds after I met him!”

 “me too!”, Hunk added.

 Allura looked at Coran before saying: “if gay means what we think it means we found out real quick too.”

 “And no one thought to tell _me?”_

 “sorry, we just assumed you know. it's just that the only way it would be more obvious, was for him running around the halls saying he was gay!”, it couldn't have been _that_ obvious, if lance hadn't found out, _could it?_

 “This is ridiculous, Lance sit down we need to finish this!”, said Allura .

 “Yeah Lance”, Pidge added with a grin.

 There was no way that he could think about anything but Keith right after he found _that_ out!; “nope, not happening, not doing that! Sorry princess!”

 Lance went to his room. He was lying in his bed thinking about Keith. Not any thing dirty no, he was thinking about how he wanted to stare into Keith’s eyes. How he wanted to hold his hand just once. He let out a exasperated scream into one of the pillows. Slowly he fell sleep.

 He woke to Hunk's voice. It was already night, _shit_ Allura was gonna be pissed. Hunk wanted to know what happened that morning, Lance brushed it off as being tired. He could tell Hunk didn't believe him for a second but he left anyway.

 Someone knocked on Lance’s door. If anything Hunk was persistent, he gave him that; “Hunk I already told you …”, he stopped mid sentence, it was Keith; “ oh Keith, I guess come in”.

 Keith stood in the room one hand on his hip; “why have you been avoiding me?”

 “What? No, I...”

 “You haven't come out of you room since morning, Lance… do you… do you have a problem with me being gay?”

 This felt like a cosmic joke, for the last day he had been contemplating whether he was actually _in love_ with Keith, and the _idiot_ had the guts to stand there and call him homophobic! He couldn't help but laugh, this was ridiculous; “ you actually… thought… I was _…homophobic!…didn't_ you…think that was... a new level…of self loathing… on me being…bi” he managed to say between laughs. Keith looked surprised “you're bi?”

 Keith didn't knew? wow he was even a bigger idiot than Lance.

 “Keith I flirt with anything that moves, you really think I have time to find out what gender they are?!”

 When they went to get dinner, Lance couldn't help retelling for everyone what happened. it just was so funny to him. Keith looked mad; “oh, shut up!”

  Before Lance could stop himself he said: “make me!”

 _Oh god, why._ He could feel a blush running up from his neck to his face, even to his ears.

 “Believe me if I knew how I would!”

 Lance blushed more than before. At least Keith looked oblivious, but that didn't mean _everyone else was._ Lance put his hand infront of Pidge's mouth before she had a chance; “one word and I swear I'll _kill_ you!”

 The next few days they started trying to form voltron, it was hard at first but they seemed to get the hang of it eventually. They had so much on their hands that Lance didn't had enough time to think about Keith.

 He was sleep when he heard a voice; "everyone get up right now!”, Lance cursed under his breath, if this was another drill he was gonna be pissed. “ we are under attack!” the urgency in Allura 's voice made him get up and run out of his room.

 “what's going on?” he demanded.

 “Galra fleets” Allura answered.

 “We should form voltron, now!” Keith said.

 But they were surrounded by Galra , _there is no way we can defeat this many!_

  Allura shook her head; “there are too many of them! we need to wormhole right now!”

 There was a loud bang and everything was shaking.

 “Oh no! princess the teleduv is damaged!” Coran said.

 “Can it hold for one jump?”

 “yes, but I don't…” another bang.

 “we don't have a choice!”

 They wormholed, but once they came out of the other end, it was obvious something was wrong. The ship was shaking uncontrollably and it was moving very fast.

 “Everyone we're crashing , hold on to som…” _BOOM!_

  
 When Lance opened his eyes he was on the ground along with every one else. They all started to get up. Everyone but Keith who was lying next to a small puddle of blood on the ground unnaturally still. _Keith!_ Lance rushed to his side; “Keith! _Keith!_ Get up! KEITH!”

 “what…”, Keith said weakly while opening his eyes. Lance hugged him tightly; “don't do that!”

 “Lance you're hurting me right now”

“oh right sorry!” Lance said as he let go of him. Keith got up weakly; “where are we?”

 For the first time Lance looked around. The ship wasn't in a good state. It had crushed half in water, half on the ground. Coran answered: “we appear to be on a planet called _Earwyna,_  I don't think it's inhabited .”

"I'm sure we'll be okay coran" Lance said.

 As if to prove lance wrong all the alarms went off.

"oh the universe just _loves_ proving me wrong!" Lance said.

 Keith who was standing next to him smirked: "you make it too easy!"

 lance stuck his tongue out at him.

at that moment all the monitors suddenly showed a picture of a man; “You have attacked the surface of our planet, come out of your craft unarmed or face the consequences”

 “We were not attacking you, we crashed while running from Galra!”, Allura said quickly.

 The man looked alarmed; “Galra ? did they follow you?” Lance felt like something looked wrong with the man. His ears looked odd and there was something on his neck; _he's_ _a_ _merman!_ Lance realized.

 “No we…”

 “Then you will leave our planet immediately!”

 “We can't do that! our ship is almost destroyed, we need help fixing it, if you help us, we will leave your planet as soon as we're able to.” Allura answered.

 There was a moment of silence when the man left they're views and then came back;  “Very well then, you can send two of your people out side, so we can discuss this further”, the screen went black.

Everyone gathered together to decide who should go. “ Coran and I should go as I have told you once before alteans are natural ambassadors”, said Allura .

 “They might be hostile, I will go with you”, Keith said.

 “Absolutely _not!!”_ everyone looked at Lance, he continued; “Keith, no offence my man, but you look like _hell,_ you should go to a healing pod _right now,_ besides I think I should go with princess”

“Lance I'd much rather if Coran would accompany me”, said Allura .

“but Coran needs to start working on the ship! and I already have experience with mermaids, and water is my lions element well was.”

“fine, Lance and I will go” Allura looked like she wasn't in a mood to argue.

They exited the ship into water together.


	5. Chapter 5

 As soon as they went to the water, they were surrounded by four mermaids. Two guards, the man that talked to them earlier, and a younger girl. Lance couldn't help but stare at them.

 They had beautiful long tails covered by scales up to higher than their waists. The guard’s tales were two different shade of green, but the girl's and man's were the exact shade of red. There were also scales on some part of their chests. They had gills on their neck. There were fins on their forearms, behind their ears, between their fingers, and on their backs. Their eyes were the same color as their tales and glowed a little. They looked both beautiful and deadly.

  
“I'm Muriel and this is my sister Morgana.” Said the man.

“yeah I think I'll just call you M1 and M2”, lance joked. the girl chuckled but both muriel and allura gave him unimpressed looks.  _tough_ _crowd_

"I am Allura, princess of Altea, and this is lance. He is...we are paladins of voltron”  
"you're paladins of voltron?” morgana asked quickly.

"yup” lance answered. Morgana studied him carefully “are you the one who pilots the blue lion?”

  
“how did you...”

  
 "enough! we have work to do, follow me” muriel interrupted lance before starting to swim. Lance didn't like this guy. They swam to a castle, it looked like a enormous reef. The view made lance hold his breath inside his helmet. Muriel showed them to a room with a big table, they sat down, allura and muriel started talking about the castle and plans to fix it, while the girl was fixating on lance, asking him personal questions. Normally lance would be flattered by this, but there was something in her gaze that made him uncomfortable, something like _recognition?!_

  
 Towards the end of their meeting , Morgana left the room. Just as Muriel was saying: “we will send a group of our engineers with you now. And a remainder at anytime you want to leave your ship, you will need to ask for permission first”, she burst into the room again: “we're having a small gathering tonight, you and your other crew members should join us”

  
 "what are...”, Muriel was asking but Morgana whispered something to him that made him fall silent.

 "it would be an honour”, Allura accepted.  
Lance, Allura, Morgana and the engineers began to swim back to the castle together.  
"how exactly are you gonna help from inside the ship? I mean you can't survive without water, can you?” he couldn't help asking.

  
 As Morgana said: “oh you're gonna love this” the others bodies started shifting, now they looked like normal humans and they had legs. It was like that one time Allura shape shifted. Morgana said goodbye to them as they went inside the castle. Once they were inside, Coran told the engineers what to do.  
Then, Allura and Lance were telling the rest of their team what had happened until they got to the part about the invitation;  
"it was so weird, it just came out of nowhere, one minute they were threatening us and the next she was like let's party!”

  
 "I agree that was quite odd” Allura nodded.

  
 "you think it's a trap?” Pidge asked.

  
 Allura considered this for a moment before saying; “no, however we must stay cautious, if we are to go , we will stay together at all time”, she threw a stern look at Lance's direction.

  
 It seemed like for once keith had listened to him. Keith didn't come out of the healing pod until late afternoon. Lance was waiting outside the pod. He looks so pale. Lance didn't like seeing keith like that, like he was vulnerable. keith came out of the pod, falling right into Lance's arms. “wow, easy there samurai!” Keith got out of his arms and started blushing. _Too cute!_

  
 Finally Morgana came to fetch them for the “gathering”. They all went swimming to the merpeople's castle. She led them to a large room, the different thing about it was that it wasn't filled with water, it was as dry as the land above. There were few people standing inside. But what truly got the team's attention specially Hunk's was all the food. There were at least hundreds of different kinds of food on the table, but weirdly enough only one kind of drink. They all started eating.  
It didn't took long for Lance to realize something was wrong, the plan was to stick together, but Allura was nowhere to be found, Pidge had managed to fell sleep like a cat on the table, Hunk was vomiting on the floor. Coran was flirting with some hot guy, _you go coran!._ Lance thought. He found Keith in a corner sitting on the floor, staring at a knife in his hand.

  
 “you okay buddy?” Lance asked.

  
 "I like knives, like I really like them!” keith giggled.  _giggled!_

  
"Keith don't move until I come back for you, okay?” Keith nodded.

  
 It looked like everyone in the team was drunk but Lance. He made his way to Morgana, “what the hell is in this stuff?” he pointed at the drinks.

  
 "this is one of our tastiest drinks!”  
 

 "it made my friends drunk”

 "Oh yeah, it doesn't affect us , it only has effects on other species”

  
 Lance was pissed, these people were friendly but what if they hadn't been? Then he and his friends would be sitting ducks at this point. He almost yelled; "well you should've mentioned that before!” but she just shrugged.

  
"wait, how come it's not affecting me? I drank plenty of it!”

  
 After a few seconds she said; “uhhm...I guess it affects everyone one differently?!” she didn't sound honest, but Lance had more important things to do right now; he had to get everyone back to the ship.

  
 He left Ciran be for now since he looked like he was enjoying himself. He went to Hunk instead; “Hunk buddy can you move? We need to get back to the castle”

  
"nooo I wanna eat more!”

  
 “dude you've eaten so much you're barfing!”  
Hunk got up reluctantly. he couldn't walk in a straight line, but they made their way back to the ship after Lance picked up asleep Pidge in his arms. She looked so small and innocent like that. _She is way too young for the burden the universe had weighed on her shoulders._ Lance thought.

 After he put them both in their beds, he went back to the party for Allura. He finally found her in the bathroom. She was on the floor crying on her knees. “I really miss shiro” was the only thing she said as she saw him. He hugged her; “it's okay, we're gonna get him back” he whispered. _she is so strong._ Not only she had lost all her family and friends, she had lost someone else she loved again, yet she managed to lead them so bravely. He found coran and asked him to take Allura back to castle.

  
 Lance went looking for Keith. He was still in the same place as before, but now his head was on his knees and he was sleep. Lance picked him up; one hand under his knees and the other beneath his back. He opened his eyes slightly as Lance started walking.

 " I waited for you” Keith said in a low voice, his eyes were hazy. Lance only smiled at this. Keith wrapped his hand around Lance's shoulders. They went back to castle like that. Just as he put Keith down to the bed, soft small hands found their way to the sides of Lance's face. “your eyes”, keith said.

 Lance couldn't help but lean in to the touch, his eyes closed automatically; “what about them?” his voice was shaky.

 Keith answered “they're beautiful!”.

  
 His heart jumped. _What are you doing to me Keith?!_ . “go to sleep” he said as walked out the room. He barely got any sleep that night; his dreams were haunted by keith. so much for the getting over keith plan.

  
 Still next morning, he was somehow energetic. Keith thought he had beautiful eyes. It was probably because of the drink but still! He smiled even more. He was making jokes and was more loud than normal at breakfast which made everyone groan at him since they were all hung over.

 Keith blushed everytime Lance looked any where near him, _ooh, so he does remember_ Lance chuckled to himself.

  
 Morgana showed up a bit later asking if they wanted to go sightseeing with her. Coran wanted to run diagnostics on castle, and Pidge wanted to ask questions from the merpeople engineers. So only Lance, Keith, Hunk and Allura went with her.

  
 "princess don't you want your helmet?” Hunk asked when they were in the water.

  
 "no!” Allura started changing into a mermaid. She had a bright pink tale. Lance felt a bit envious. He wished he could do that too!

  
 Morgana didn't take them to the castle, instead they visited some colorful reefs. She kept asking questions about Lance's past and his family, it was getting annoying. He tried to focus on the view. Lance had swam many times in the ocean but he'd never seen creatures like this back on earth. They were mesmerising.

  
 "this is what I really wanted to show you!” Morgana looked at him before swimming behind a reef. They followed. Lance gasped. Infront of them, were these huge creatures that looked like giant seahorses but more friendly. She was still studying Lance; “ you can ride them if you want”

  
 Lance got on the back of one; “I'll race you to the next reef!” he said to Keith before making the seahorse move. Keith was racing behind him shortly as others cheered. But Lance seemed to be instinctively good at this, he got there first ; “haha loser”

  
 Keith crossed his arms ; “ that wasn't a fair fight you started sooner!”

  
 "no one likes a sore loser, mullet” Lance said before winking at him but Keith just turned his face away. _Good job now he hates you again_  Lance thought bitterly.

  
 Before they went back to their ship, Morgana said: “we're having a masquerade ball tonight, do you want to join us?” she was looking at Lance but Allura answered; “yesss! I haven't been to one in ages!”

  
 As they started to get back inside the ship, Morgana took Lance's arm in her hands; “Lance I was wondering if you could come with me, I want to show you something”

 he wanted to refuse, he didn't want to answer any more of her questions but before he could, Keith almost shouted; “back off fish face! He can come and go as he wants”

  
 Lance wanted to laugh; _fish face,_ but Keith had been snapping at her all day, and Lance didn't want to upset their hosts; “that's not a way to talk to a lady, you're being really rude keith! You've been mean to her all day, you know what I think I'll go with her”

  
 Keith huffed a breath and went inside alone.  
As Lance and Morgana started swimming the other way, Lance tried to apologise; “sorry he's not usually like this, well I mean he kinda is but...”

  
 But Morgana smiled “it's okay, I understand, he doesn't like sharing his boyfriend.”  _what?!_

  
 "what… no … we're not … I mean… I'm not …his boyfriend!” Lance blushed.

  
 "sure” she said in a way that madeance want to argue with her.

  
 They went inside her room. She gave him a package that seemed to be clothes and a mask. He sent her a questioned look. She answered; “ my aunt asked me to give you this”

  
" your aunt? Who's your aunt?”

  
 "the queen of course” _okay seriously whats going on?!_

  
 "why would your queen want me to have this?” he asked suspiciously.  
“ugh will you just wear them?!” she pushed him to another room and left. This room was dry, like the last night's. he started taking off his clothed and wearing the new ones. They were clothes for the masquerade , the material was soft and felt nice against his skin. The coat was the same shade of blue as his eyes. When he finished he looked in the mirror. He looked nice. Then he put on the mask. “okay I'm done “ he said loudly.

 Morgana came back to the room. She was back to her human form and was wearing a beautiful dress; ”took you long enough! Move it we're late”

 Lance smiled. They would've been good friends if she wasn't so nosey. They went to the same room as the last night. But this time with decorations everywhere and it was filled with people walking and dancing.

  
 Lance was looking for his friends, but he had  no idea what they were wearing, and there were just too many people around. A new song started to play. Even though he didn't know the language, he could tell it was a love song. It made him think of keith. _Where is he?_ He wanted to dance with him. But even if he knew where Keith was he didn't think he had the guts to….

  
 Suddenly something was on his lips. Someone was kissing him! He wanted to stop them but their lips, they were so soft and they felt so right against his owns , it felt like their lips belonged together. He broke the kiss anyway.

  
 What was he doing? he claimed he had feelings for keith and yet he was making out with someone else? _What is wrong with me?!_ He felt disgusted with himself. He said; “I don't know if this is your people's way of greeting or if you were trying to hit on me, but I'm sorry I like someone, I can't do this” He felt like the other guy was shocked but Lance moved away from him quickly.

  
 Lance didn't look for Meith the rest of the night. He didn't want to face him. He felt like he'd betrayed him, which was stupid!, keith couldn't care less who lance kissed, right? He went back to the ship early and fell asleep.  
Next morning he tried to avoid Keith's gaze at breakfast. He still felt guilty.

  
"hey Keith you left the ball really early last night, did something happen?” Pidge asked.

  
 “huh? No nothing” Keith said.

  
 “really? So nothing interesting happened?” Pidge asked again with a smirk.

  
 "NO!, I… I just had a stomachache and left!” keith answered. He was blushing. Lance felt worried, _is he sick_?; “you're okay now, aren't you?” Lance asked concerned.

  
 Keith's eyes widened at that and he even blushed more; “yeah”

  
 Muriel came inside the kitchen at that moment;” our king and queen has requested your presence” he left after that as soon as he came.

  
 They all looked at each other questionably, Allura shrugged and just said “I guess we don't have another choice.” They all made their way to the mercastle together. Muriel and Morgana joined them as they enter the new room.

 It was a huge room filled with guards, in the center of it were two golden stances and two merpeople were sitting on them. The merman was big and muscly, he had a green tail, he looked quite scary. The mermaid next to him looked very different. She had a very beautiful blue tail. Lance had seen a lot of merfolks these past few days and even though they all had different colored tales, lance was sure that no one else had a blue tale. She had a tanned skin and long brown hair which changed color to blue in the middle. For some reason she reminded lance of his mama. Maybe it was her kind eyes.

  
"your majesties , queen Amatheia and king Proteus. These are there the paladins of voltron” Muriel bowed down but before they could do the same thing, a soft sob came from the queen. She was crying. The king said: “ Theia you can't just”

 but the queen interrupted him; “shut up Teus, I haven't seen him in years, I can do whatever I want” and she started swimming to them.

 before Lance could register what was happening, she was hugging him and crying. After a moment Lance awkwardly said: “ uhm...I'm sorry but I don't think we've met” she let go of him, but cupped his face from outside the helmet with her hands and said: “oh my little Lancelot don't you know? I am your mother!”


	6. Chapter 6

 As Keith opened his eyes the events of last night rushed back to him. _Oh god! why me?_  
He remembered how Lance had brought him back to his bed and how Keith had told Lance he had beautiful eyes. It was the truth but he never would've told Lance that in his right mind. Lance was never gonna let this go! He would make fun of Keith because of it forever, but to his surprise Lance _didn't._  infact he was acting really mature! Okay maybe not that mature, after all it was L _ance_ he was talking about.

  
 The mermaid girl took them to show them around. Keith decided he didn't like her she kept talking to Lance and asking him questions. Was she trying to flirt with him? Finally she showed them behind a reef. There were this enormous seahorses there. Lance got on back of one of them;“I'll race you to the next reef!”

  
 Keith got on one and started racing after him. He didn't like the riding, he always hated the feeling of being on a rollercoaster and this felt exactly like that. But not Lance. He looked like he'd been doing this ever since he was born. “haha _loser”_ Lance said as he finished first.

  
 Keith crossed his arms ; “ that wasn't a fair fight you started sooner!”

  
 "no one likes a sore loser, mullet”, Lance winked at him. Keith turned his face away before Lance could see he was blushing.  
Before they went back to their ship, the annoying girl said: “we're having a masquerade ball tonight, do you want to join us?”

 Allura answered; “yesss! I haven't been to one in ages!”

  
 “Lance I was wondering if you could come with me, I want to show you something” what did she want alone with Lance?

 Keith snapped; “back off fish face! He can come and go as he wants”

  
 “that's not a way to talk to a lady, you're being really rude Keith! You've been mean to her all day, you know what I think I'll go with her”

 of course Lance wanted to go with her. Why was Keith so stupid? Lance would never refuse a pretty girl! Keith felt angry or... was it jealousy? He was _jealous!_ Lance had made him feel jealous. He wanted to get back at Lance for this.

  
bAllura gave them all clothes to wear and handed them some masks. Keith chose the red ones. They made their ways to the ball. Lance was still missing. _he's probably flirting around again_ Keith thought bitterly. He wanted Lance to feel how he felt. He wanted to make Lance jealous, he couldn't make lance jealous for him , but he could target one of Lance's flirting buddies and make him jealous because of that.

  
"hey do you know which one of these people Lance tried to flirt with the most?” he asked Pidge.

  
 Pidge gave it a little thought; “that guy who's standing over there in blue”

  
  _get ready lance I'm stealing your crush. like you stole my heart!_ He just went straight to. the guy and pulled him for a kiss. To his surprise Keith enjoyed the kiss, the guy's lips felt really nice against Keith, but the guy broke away suddenly; “I don't know if this is your people's way of greeting or if you were trying to hit on me, but I'm sorry I like someone, I can't do this” _lance!_ It was lance! he'd kissed lance! _Pidge! that little satan!_ it was all her fault.

  
 But what had Lance said? he liked someone else?! Keith could feel his insides shatter. Lance had never been into someone that much before to stop another's kiss, and now he was and it wasn't Keith, and that hurt so much. He wanted to scream. Keith left the party he didn't think he could take it anymore. He went back to the castle to the training room. Keith hit the gladiator as if he was all his shattered dreams. But who was it that Lance liked? It was that Morgana girl, wasn't it? Keith had never felt like he wanted to punch a girl this much before. He hated her, he hated her with all his guts. He continued to fight the gladiator as he was imagining it was her.

  
 Next morning he couldn't bring himself to look at Lance. He was afraid he'd start crying if he did.

  
 "hey Keith you left the ball really early last night, did something happen?” pidge asked keith.

  
 “huh? No nothing” What was she trying to do?

  
 “really? So nothing interesting happened?” Pidge asked again with a smirk. Why was she torturing Keith like this? hadn't she done enough?

  
 "NO!, I… I just had a stomachache and left!” Keith made up an excuse.

  
 “you're okay now, aren't you?” Lance asked.  
Why did he care anyway? After what he'd made Keith go through? But that wasn't fair Lance didn't know. Keith eventually said; “yeah”

  
 Muriel came inside; ” our king and queen has requested your presence” he left.  
Allura just said “I guess we don't have another choice.” They all made their way to the mercastle together. Muriel and morgana joined them as they enter the new room. Keith wanted to yell at her. The royal couple were sitting on golden stances in the center of the room. The queen seemed extremely familiar to Keith.

  
 "your majesties , queen Amatheia and king Proteus. These are there the paladins of voltron” muriel bowed down . suddenly The king said: “ theia you can't just” but the queen interrupted him; “shut up teus, I haven't seen him in years, I can do whatever I want” and she started swimming to lance and hugged him. Lance awkwardly said; “uhm...I'm sorry but I don't think we've met”

  
"oh my little Lancelot don't you know? I am your mother!”

  
 _What is happening?_!! Keith watched as so many feeling passed on Lance's face; “what are you talking about? you're a mermaid I'm a human!”

  
"Lance you've seen how we change forms. I understand this is hard to believe but it's the truth! I swear to you!”

  
 "you can't possibly think I believe you!” Lance said incredulously.

  
 "why would we lie?” Lance didn't say anything to this so the queen continued: “at least listen to what I have to say. We were under attack, the galra had taken all of our people and I…” she looked at the king “and we couldn't lose you okay? you were our baby boy !we had to save you! We found the nearest planet with the most water on its surface; earth we sent you there through a wormhole.” She started crying hysterically, his husband was trying to comfort her.

  
 "even if I thought you were telling the truth which I don't, how do you know I'm your son? Huh? there are billions of people on earth who could be your son! Plus I don't remember ever having a tail! Why would you possibly think I am your son?”, Lance asked coldly.

  
 “when we heard the blue paladin have saved our kind, I knew it was you. And then you came here of all the places you could crash! Here! it's like the fate brought you back to us. but we had to know for sure it was you, so we arranged the party, those drinks the only way you wouldn't get affected by them was as if you were one of us and you didn't! and I knew for sure that you were my baby boy.”

  
 “just because a stupid drink doesn't work on me? That’s… that's crazy!”

  
 “but _is_ it?” hunk said; “is it really that crazy? Come on L _ance_ you've always been exceptionally good at swimming. You can hold your breath underwater longer than anyone I know, how many times have I told you that you sound like a siren when you sing. And you told me yourself that you couldn't find any info on your birth parents”  
Lance just shook his head; “that isn't good enough!”

  
 “come on Lance you're the spitting image of her” pidge pointed towards the queen.

  
“why is it so hard for you to believe this?” the king asked calmly.

  
“BECAUSE IF IT IS TRUE THEN YOU JUST THREW ME AWAY LIKE I DIDN'T MATTER WHILE YOU WERE HAVING PARTIES HERE! DID YOU EVEN LOOK FOR ME OR DID YOU THOUGHT IT WAS A GOOD RIDANCE?!”, Lance burst out. It took all Keith's self control not to hug Lance take him away from there.

  
 “of course you mattered, we were sure the galra would kill you. Lance it took us years to fight back the galra and take our planet back” the king said.

  
“so you really are?” Lance asked with a shakey voice.

  
“yes son”

  
Lance didn't do anything, he didn’t even move a muscle. The queen went closer to him. She hugged him again but he didn't show any response. He eventually said: “can we go back to our ship now?” the queen looked shocked but she nodded.

  
 So lance and the rest of the team made their way back to the castle, keith shared a concerned look with the others. Lance clearly wasn't okay. “I need to think” was the only thing Lance said before locking himself in his room.

  
 Keith went to the training room, he wanted to help Lance but he didn't know how. He eventually got tired by the time it was night. Somehow he found himself going to the observation deck. Someone was sitting on the floor next to the wall and staring out the window. Lance. Keith slid down next to him.

  
“ you know I used to watch the stars with my mama, it was one of the reasons I fell in love with space”, Lance's voice didn't have his usual confidence. He gave keith a little look, his eyes were red and puffy. _He must've been crying_. It pained Keith to see Lance this hurt.

  
“ I understand they sent me away to keep me safe, but that's not what happened. If it wasn't for my adopted parents I'd never make it. They did so much for me. I can't help but feel like I'm betraying them if I allow these ones in to my life.”

  
 Keith put a hand on Lance's arm; “I never knew your parents, but I'm sure they would want you to have as many loved ones as possible”

  
 Lance put his other hand on Keith's fingers and gave them a little squeeze “thanks Keith... I think my parents would've liked you.”  
Just as Keith wanted to move away Lance said: “ stay? I don't wanna be alone”

  
 Neither of them said anything else, they watched the stars together. Their hands were still together as Keith fell asleep.

 

 “just take the picture so we can get out before they wake up”

  
 “you try working with the stupid Altean camera and see how fast you can do it!”

two voices were talking near him. Keith's head was on something soft. There was a coat around his shoulders and his hands were holding someone else's. _lance._ He opened his eyes to see a scared looking hunk and an evil looking pidge staring at them. He turned his face to see Lance staring back at him really close. They both looked at each other for a second before letting out a shocked yelp and getting away from each other.  
“got it all on camera”, Pidge said before running out of the room.


	7. Chapter 7

 All his life Lance had thought his birth parents hated him and that's why they gave him up! but now these people were telling him they did it because they loved him, and Lance was accepting that. He felt like they were telling the truth. _Okay_ maybe he'd been in denial the last day. But now after Keith had calmed him down he could see it was the truth.

 It was weird that Keith had this much power over Lance and he didn't even know it. Lance gave him another look, who knew next time he got a chance to watch Keith this closely?! If ever!, his head had fallen on Lance’s shoulders as he'd fallen asleep. His soft hair was tickling Lance’s chin, he wanted to brush them with the hand that wasn't holding Keith's but was afraid he'd wake him up. Keith gave a little shudder. _is he cold?_ Keith wasn't wearing his jacket. He must've been training. Lance took out his own jacket and put it around Keith's shoulders.

  
 He woke up to the sound of Pidge; “you try working with the stupid altean camera and see how fast you can do it!”

Lance opened his eyes to see a pair of violet ones staring back at him. He let out a small yelp before getting away. Oh _right_ he'd fallen asleep next to Keith.

  
“got it all on camera” Pidge said before running out of the room. Lance sprinted after her. But eventually gave up. She was tiny but she was really fast.

  
 After breakfast, Lance went back to the water alone. He went to the seahorses.  
“you loved to play with them as a baby” said a voice behind him. It was the queen, his _mom._

  
 _“can_ I ask you a question?” Lance sked. She nodded. “how did you know my full name?”  
She smiled. “ because that's what I named you, you see I've always been amazed by the land and all it's secrets, so I named you Lancelot after it. I wrote your name on the blanket so who ever found you would know your name”

  
 “Theia, can I call you Theia?” Lance asked. her eyes saddened but she nodded anyway. “how come no one saw me have a tale as a baby”

  
 “I'm guessing that when you landed on ground you changed your form so you'd be able to breath. But that's very rare our children can hardly shapeshift before the age of seven. that's why we chose a planet that was mostly covered in water.”

  
 They asked each other few other questions.  
“Lance, if I throw a celebration for your return, will you come to it?”  
Lance nodded.

“Great then we should get ready for tonight”

  
Lance thought he had heard enough crazy these past few days, until Theia told him he could turn to a merman if he wanted. Clearly he'd thought _wrong._ She told him all he needed to do was focus and so he did. Nothing happened for few seconds, then suddenly his body started changing. His feet started changing to a tail. Scales and fins started growing on his body. He could now breath with his gills. _gills_ His tale was the same color as his mother's which was the same blue of both of their eyes. Lance started moving his tale. _this is unbelievable!_  It felt amazing swimming like this . he did a few rounds around the reef before stopping.   
“you look beautiful” she had tears in her eyes. Lance smiled at her.

  
 “let's go, you can't be late to your own party”

  
This time the party was in a room filled with water so Lance stayed in his merman form. Theia introduced him to all his cousins and family members. Lance only smiled at them, he wasn't sure of what he should say to them. He felt a gaze on him, he looked around, Keith was staring at him with wide eyes. Something in his look made Lance blush.

  
“so are you gonna introduce me to your friends?” Theia asked.

  
 “okay… so this is Hunk. he's my best bro in the world. And Coran Coran the gorgeous man. This is Allura she's all mean on the outside but I'm sure she's nice on the inside” princess frowned at him. “and Pidge is a little sh…” Pidge gave him a look that said if he continued he'd pay for it later “fine she is an evil genius , and this is Keith, he's uhm well Keith”

  
 Theia gave Keith a suspicious look: “I need to talk to this one alone” _what?!_

  
 Keith came back with a blush. “what did she told you?”, Lance asked.

  
“nothing!”, Keith answered too quickly.

Lance squinted at him: ”whatever!”

  
He took a look around and joked; “how come there are so many hot aliens?!”

  
Keith looked at him; “I don't think you've noticed but _you_ are a hot alien!"

  
“you think I'm hot?” Lance couldn't help asking.

Keith only rolled his eyes at him but Lance wasn't teasing. He never thought Keith would think of him as hot.

  
The same love song as the earlier party played.

  
“let's dance!” Lance said as he pulled Keith after him before he could protest.   
He had his hands around Keith's neck as he felt the other boy putting his hands on Lance’s waist. Lance’s tale wrapped around Keith's legs automatically. They weren't so much as dancing as swirling around, but Lance didn't care. They were too close to each other for Lance to care about anything else. All he could think about were those eyes and those lips. Lance’s eyes switched from one to another, he could feel his face getting closer to Keith's. this had been a mistake, obviously Lance had no self control when it came to Keith. _You can't kiss him, he'll never speak to you again_. Lance got saved by the song's finishing. He unwrapped himself from Keith quickly and blurted out “thanks for the dance” before swimming away. that's when he realised how stupid that was since Keith had a helmet on! Lance couldn't have kissed him even if he'd tried!

  
 “I want to give you something “ Theia said before taking him to another room. If Lance had to guess he'd say it was a bedroom. She took a neckless from a small box and handed it to Lance. It was beautiful and _glowing._ It was a blue spiraling shell. “this pendant has been in our family for centuries, we each give it to our mate, it represents our love and loyalty. And when our children find theirs they gave it to their mate. I want you to give it to yours”

  
 Lance tried to give it back; “ I can't accept this, it belongs to you plus I don't have anyone I want to give this to” it wasn't true he wanted to give it to Keith, but he was sure Keith would want it.

  
 A puzzled look crossed her face. ”I don't understand isn't that boy keef your mate?”

  
 “Keith” he corrected her unconsciously; “ and no we're not together.” He tried to gave the necklace back again. She gave him a half smile “keep it anyway, just in case“ she put it around his neck. “you know me and your father wasted years dancing around each other, don't make the same mistake” they went back to the party but Lance wasn't in the mood anymore.

  
 He wished people would stop calling Keith and him a couple. It hurt him deeply everytime he had to say they weren't together. It was already hard enough having a unrequited love for Keith. That was what this was wasn't it? He couldn't kid himself anymore. The way his heart rushed everytime he saw Keith, how Keith's eyes could make holes in Lance’s skull. How he wanted to cherish those lips forever. How he wanted to hold him and never let go. This _was_ love.

  
 he spent the next day in his merman form with Theia and his father. He was a quite man, he didn't say much but he sent kind looks to Lance. It was late afternoon when something happened, Allura came after him;  “Lance we've received distress calls from a planet near by we need to leave immediately!”

they both swam back to the castle, before Lance could enter a hand stopped him. “where are you going?” Theia asked.

  
“I need to help those people” she looked sad;  
“when will you come back?”

  
 “I don’t know if I will” lance said. she gasped. He wasn't trying to be harsh, he just didn't want them to have their hopes up. It was enough that his parents were awaiting his return, he didn't want these ones to go through the same pain.

  
“I'm glad I met you” he hugged her and sent a look to his father before entering the ship.

  
“is the ship operational?” he asked Coran.  
“yes all the main systems have been fixed, I'll be using your help to fix the rest after this fight” all four of them sighed at this.  
“set a course” said Keith. _aww_ _he looks excited he's been away from a fight for too long._ But Lance didn't blame him he felt a rush of excitement himself as the ship started moving. He looked outside. Earwyna soon turned into a dot. Was he never destined to have a home?

  
 It was an easy job. They formed voltron and got rid of the galra soldiers attacking. They all went to bed. But Lance couldn't sleep, though he was just wearing a loose shirt and pajamas, he felt really hot. For some reason the castle was trying to boil him. It felt like 200 degrees in his room. He got up to get a cold glass of water. When he arrived at the kitchen someone was already there. Keith.

Keith only had his shirt and black boxers on. He was struggling to reach a upper shelf, which made his shirt to go up and uncover parts of his waist. _He looks hot_. Lance went to his help, but Keith gave a yelp and turned back. His hands came up next to Lance’s chest instinctively. “Lance?! What are you doing?”

they were less than an each apart. “trying to get some water too, you know how great minds think alike” Lance’s heart was racing. “so, you need a hand, shorty?!” one of his hands went to rest on the counter, just a little further from Keith's waist, while he reached the other from next to Keith's head to reach the shelf. They were _too_ close.

“you're like an inch taller than me!” didn't their proximity affect Keith at all? Lance could hardly breath. every part of his body that was close to Keith's felt electric. His face was red, he managed to say in a low voice; “ sorry what was that? I couldn't hear you from all the way up here.” He swallowed hard. His eyes were locked on Keith's eyes. He could've sworn Keith's eyes were shining in the dark.

  
“oh, get a room!” Pidge said as she turned the lights on. Lance and Keith got away from each other quickly.

  
 Pidge grinned; “nice shorts Keith! I bet they would look even nicer on Lance’s floor!” she continued. Keith just gave her a incredulous look and left the kitchen.

  
 “did you?...just… hit on Keith?...for me?” Lance blushed even more.

  
 “well you weren't gonna do it anytime soon, were you?!” _she is unbelievable_. 

“Pidge!!!” He shaked his head and went back to his room.

  
The next few days they were busy fighting, a lot of distress calls were sent to them. In their last fight their ship got damaged heavily.

  
“tomorrow we're taking a day off to fix the castle. Many systems are failing and need repairs. Some of the doors are malfunctioning. Keith your bedroom's door doesn't unlock right now. you're gonna have to sleep in another paladins room.”

  
“well he's not getting in mine” Pidge stated quickly.

  
“I would offer mine but I've been told I snore like a bear you couldn't get any sleep” Hunk added.

  
“well I doubt you would want to stay at shiro's room” Coran gave Keith a sympathetic look as he continued “ that means you're gonna share with Lance then” _wtf?!_

  
“NO!... I'll just sleep in the common room.” Keith said.

  
 “oh you getting scared?!” Lance said before he could stop himself. _oh dear god_ why did he hate himself?! _please say you are! there is no way I can survive a night alone with you_.

  
“I'm not scared of anything!” _No… no…no_

  
 Coran gave a happy jolt; “then it's settled, Keith you'll sleep in Lance’s room. Now come on, move it every body. Time for bed”

  
 Lance put a blanket and pillow for Keith on the ground next to his bed, they both proceeded to lie down in their places. But Lance couldn't sleep, he kept changing positions but sleep wouldn't come to his eyes.

  
 “stop moving so much” Keith finally said.

  
“I can't sleep!” Lance said.

  
 “well I _can”_ Keith answered irritated.

  
 “you know what? let's just switch places I don't feel comfortable sleeping here while you're on the ground” _yeah cause that's why I can't sleep_

  
 “if that'll shut you up” and they changed places. now Lance was on the floor, and Keith in his bed. Keith was in his bed, of all the ways Lance had thought that would happen, this was certainly not one of them.

After a while Keith sighed; _“ugh”_

  
“what?”

  
“now _I_ feel bad for making you sleep on the floor”

  
 “Keith…. uhm don't hurt me but I have an idea. How about we both sleep on the bed?”

  
“okay” _okay? Okay?!!!_ What did he mean okay?! Lance crawled up to the bed next to Keith. They were both staring at the ceiling in silent. Lance fell asleep listening to Keith breathing.

 

“aw they're cute”

  
“no they're _gross”_

  
 Lance opened his eyes to hushed voices. They must've moved when they were sleep because now Keith's head was resting in the crook of Lance’s neck. His hand was resting on Lance’s chest while Lance’s hands were wrapped around him. Their legs tangled together. Keith slowly moved his head up to stare at Lance with dazed eyes. _Dear lord he's so beautiful._ Lance couldn't stop himself saying; “hey, prettyboy” with a smile.

Keith looked stunned. He was getting more and more red in the face. _Man!_ Lance could get used to this. Waking up next to Keith.

  
“I think you broke him” Pidge laughed. Lance threw a pillow at her, she ducked but left with Hunk.

  
“not that I'm complaining but I'm gonna need my hand back”, he chuckled to Keith. Keith seemed to just register that he was still in Lance’s arm, he got up awkwardly, still red in the cheeks. _Great you made him uncomfortable_

  
 They made their way to the kitchen together. Coran gave them all chores to do. Lance was singing aloud as he worked. It was a love song that made Lance think about Keith.

 He heard the sound of glass shattering behind him and turned around. Keith was standing and pieces of a broken mug were all around him on the ground. He tried to pick up the broken glass . “ouch!”

  
“leave it be!” Lance said as he made his way towards Keith. He took Keith's hand in his own and examined it carefully. “it's a deep cut, we should get it bandaged”

  
 Keith tried to get his hand out of Lance’s grip; “it's fine. I've had a thousand worst cut than _this.”_

  
 But Lance insisted :”yeah well I don't have time to nurse you around when it gets infected.”

  
 They went to the infirmary. Lance made Keith sit on one of the beds as he looked for the first aid kid. He cleaned the cut carefully and put a bandage on it. He absentmindedly took Keith's hand to his mouth and put a kiss on it; “there, now it'll get better sooner” he could feel Keith shudder next to him. _Is my touch that annoying to him?_

  
 They all were eating lunch when Keith asked: “so Pidge did you fix my door? I want my room back!” _wow he can't wait to get away from me_

  
 Pidge answered ; “why? You looked really comfy in Lance’s bed this morning”

 Allura choked on her food at that. Keith explained to Allura: “ it wasn't like that! It … it was an accident!” _at least he's not telling everyone it was my idea_

  
 “what?! did you trip on the ground and fell right to Lance’s arms?!” Pidge said sarcastically. Keith sent her a nasty glare.

  
 later that day Lance was maknig his way to the kitchen when he overheard a conversation;

  
 Allura: we're not having this conversation again.

  
 Pidge: yes we are cause if I have to listen to another round of _oh his eyes are so beautiful, oh I just wanna hold his hand, oh I love him so much , oh I wish he loved me back!_ I will throw myself out the air locker. I'm _not_ kidding.

  
 _Oh!_ Lance had forgotten the others could feel his thoughts when they formed voltron. So they all knew how He felt? Did Keith knew? He hoped not. He had to be more careful from now on.

  
 Allura: we are _not_ meddling in this. They have to work it out on their own

  
 Pidge: but why? Hunk come on back me up on this

  
 Hunk: I kinda agree with Allura. It’s their business.

  
 Pidge: but it _isn't!_ its affecting all of us. We have to tell them. I can't tolerate this anymore. I'm getting them here we're telling them right now. Operation klance is a go!

  
 NO! he panicked. Lance wouldn't let Pidge tell Keith. He couldn't bare the thought of losing Keith even as a friend, and that was for sure what'd happen if Keith knew! if he had to he would lock himself in his room forever.

 he turned around and started running but shortly he crashed into something.


	8. Chapter 8

 Keith remembered the underwater party as it was happening right now; he'd been admiring the beauty of the merpeople as one of them caught his attention. The merman had a awestrucking blue tail and was very handsome , he had tanned skin and glowing blue eyes ... that were looking right at Keith. Oh god it's _Lance,_ Keith realised.

  
 Keith remembered how the queen Lance's mother had taken him to a corner to say that as Lance's mate he should never hurt him. he'd wanted to say he wasn't Lance's _mate_ but his cheeks had went red at the thought and all he had managed to do was nod.

  
 He remembered how Lance had pulled him to dance. Lance's tail had wrapped around his legs. Keith had thought the their tails would be cold but Lance's was pleasantly warm. Lance's hands were behind Keith's neck and their faces were incredibly close. He was looking at Lance's lips. I want to kiss him but with the helmet?! His face was getting closer to Lance's involuntarily anyway, suddenly Lance jerked away from him. The song had finished. _Damn it!_ Why couldn't the stupid song have been two seconds longer?!!

  
 He hardly saw Lance the next day. _Is he avoiding me?_

  
 That afternoon they had received distress signals. they had to leave the planet. He felt sad for Lance. didn't the poor boy get to stay with _any_ family he found?

  
 After the fight everyone was chilling in the common room, even Coran had joined them. The man kept staring at Pidge and Hunk.

Pidge finally snapped at him; “what?”

  
“I'm only asking for my own piece of mind but you two are sure that you _are_ human, right?” Coran asked.

  
 Hunk answered; “Coran my man I assure you no one in my family tree had been an alien!”  
Pidge only said; “oh that reminds me!” and left the room.

  
 “Hunk I don't know your uncle Ben looks kinda alienish to me!” Lance teased Hunk.

  
 Just then Pidge came back with a bag and put it on the table; “Lance I need some samples from you!” she pulled out a needle.

  
 “No!” Lance shrieked.

  
“come on I just need some blood!” Pidge said, walking toward Lance.

  
 “Hunk protect me from that child of evil!” Lance said in a high pitched voice. Keith rolled his eyes; Lance _always with the dramatics!_

  
 “I don't know buddy It would be nice to run some test on it!” Hunk answered.

  
“traitor!” Lance said before crawling next to Keith. He hid behind Keith; “Keithy boy, your my last hope!”

  
 Keith tried to push him away; “stop being ridiculous, just take the blood sample!”

  
But Lance hold on to him tighter; “NO!”

  
“what's the big deal?! it's just a needle!”

Lance looked at him with eyes full of fear. _NO_ _it can't be!_ “your afraid of needles!” Keith couldn't help laughing.

  
Lance blushed; “hey everybody's afraid of something!”

  
“but you the over confident 6 feet tall grown ass guy who'd been in a fight with one of the most evil men in the universe, _you_ who'd been getting injured on a daily basis for almost three years now are afraid of a tiny needle!”, Keith laughed even more.

Everyone else was laughing too. Pidge started coming towards them, But Lance still held on to him. Looking at Keith with scared eyes.

  
“come on, it won't even hurt!” Keith reassured him

  
“I don't know, I have a sensitive skin”

Keith held back his laugh, _god he's such a baby!;_ “you won't feel a thing!”

  
Lance looked at him with wide eyes; “you promise?”

  
 Keith wanted to roll his eyes but he said; “yeah I …”

  
Pidge interrupted Keith; “there I'm done”. She pulled out the needle full of blood out of Lance's hand. When did she put the needle in?!

  
Lance's voice asked Keith's question; “wait...what?!...when?!”

  
Pidge answered with a grin; “while you lovebirds were busy flirting!” Keith blushed. Lance only pouted holding his wrist with his other hand staring at the point where Pidge had pulled the needle from. he said; “betrayed by my own friends” Keith laughed again.

  
 Later that night Keith was laying in his bed trying to sleep but couldn't. he'd taken off his pants and was only wearing his shirt and boxers, but he still couldn't stand the heat. What is this hell? he got up to get some water. He was looking for a cup but the only one was in one of the upper shelves. _god_ Keith hated being short. He tried to reach it but he couldn't. just as he was about to get on the counter, he felt like someone was behind him, he turned around quickly, both of his hand shot up defensively. _it's just Lance!_ And he was way too close. “Lance?! What are you doing?”

  
 “trying to get some water too, you know how great minds think alike ... so, you need a hand, shorty?!” one of his hands went to rest on the counter, just a little further from Keith's waist, while the other reached from next to Keith's head to reach the shelf. His breath was tickling Keith's skin.

“you're like an inch taller than me!” Keith was staring at Lance's eyes. He felt his cheeks heating up. God what wouldn't he give to taste those lips one more time..

“ sorry what was that? I couldn't hear you from all the way up here.” Only Lance could make Keith want to both punch him and kiss him at the same time.

  
 “oh, get a room!” Pidge said as she turned the lights on. Lance and Keith got away from each quickly.

  
 Pidge grinned; “nice shorts Keith! I bet they would look even nicer on Lance's floor!” _what the hell?!_ Keith left before he would turn into a blushing mess.

  
 The next few days they were busy fighting, in one of the fight the castle got heavily damaged.

  
 “tomorrow we're taking a day off to fix the castle. Many systems are failing and need repairs. Some of the doors are malfunctioning. Keith your bedroom's door don't unlock right now. you're gonna have to sleep in another paladins room.” _lucky me!_ He thought sourly.

  
 “well he's not getting in mine” Pidge stated quickly.

  
“I would offer mine but I've been told I snore like a bear you couldn't get any sleep” Hunk added.

  
“well I doubt you would want to stay at Shiro's room” Coran gave Keith a sympathetic look. He was right Keith didn't want face the empty room. “ that means you're gonna share with Lance then” Coran finished. _dear god why do you hate me?_

  
“NO!... I'll just sleep in the common room.” Keith said. The thought of sharing a room with Lance scared him. _I don't think I could control myself._

  
“oh you getting scared?!” _great_ Keith would never back away from a challenge. specially not one from Lance!

  
“I'm not scared of anything!”

  
Coran said “then it's settled, Keith you'll sleep in Lance's room. Now come on, move it every body. Time for bed”

  
 Lance prepared a blanket and pillow for Keith on the ground next to his bed, they both proceeded to lie down in their places. Keith didn't think he could sleep and Lance's constant moving certainly wasn’t a help.

  
 “stop moving so much” Keith finally said.

  
“I can't sleep”

  
 “well I _can”_ _okay that was a lie but Lance didn't need to know that_

  
“you know what? let's just switch places I don't feel comfortable sleeping here while you're on the ground”

  
“if that'll shut you up” they changed places. This wasn't an improvement at all. Lance's bed had his scent and it was driving Keith mad. He sighed: _“ugh”_

  
“what?”

  
“now _I_ feel bad for making you sleep on the floor” at least he was getting better at lying.

  
 “Keith…. uhm don't hurt me but I've an idea. How about we both sleep on the bed?” 

  
 “okay” he said too quickly. _he's gonna think I'm actually up to something._

  
 Lance crawled next to him. They were both staring at the ceiling in silent. Lance's breathing became slower. Once he was sure Lance was asleep, Keith leaned to his side looking at Lance. His long eyelashes were casting shadows on his tiny freckles. His lips were slightly apart. Keith couldn’t get enough of this view. Without his usual smirk and look of mischief, Lance looked peaceful. Keith loved this side of Lance, the side that wasn't pretending or wearing a mask. Keith felt special that he'd been allowed to see this side. Not that he didn't love other sides of Lance. _God,_ these days Keith loved everything that this boy did, even when it pissed him off. He even loved the cheesy pick up lines that made everyone else annoyed. _I wish he would use one on me!_

  
 When he woke up, his body was wrapped around someone else's and two hands were holding him, he opened his eyes to find two blue ones staring back at him. Lance “hey, prettyboy” Keith couldn't move a muscle. This right here; being in Lances arms, waking up next to him, getting a compliment from him was everything Keith ever wanted.

 someone said something and Lance threw something at them but Keith didn't move. He _couldn't._

  
 “not that I'm complaining but I'm gonna need my hand back” Lance chuckled. Keith loved the sound of his laugh.

  
 They made their way to the kitchen together. Coran gave them all chores to do. After working for a while Keith made the equivalent Hunk had found for coffee, and took it with him as he made his way back. He heard someone singing;

 

_What would I do without your smart mouth?_

_Drawing me in, and you kicking me out_

_You've got my head spinning, no kidding, I can't pin you down_

 

Lance!

 

_What's going on in that beautiful mind_

_I'm on your magical mystery ride_

_And I'm so dizzy, don't know what hit me, but I'll be alright_

 

Keith had never heard Lance sing. His voice was so beautiful so full of emotions.

 

_My head's under water_

_But I'm breathing fine_

_You're crazy and I'm out of my mind_

 

Keith felt hypnotized.

 

_Cause all of me_

_Loves all of you_

_Love your curves and all your edges_

_All your perfect imperfections_

_Give your all to me_

_I'll give my all to you_

_You're my end and my beginning_

_Even when I lose I'm winning_

 

Keith could feel the mug slipping out of his hands but he couldn't do anything to prevent it.

 

_Cause I give you all of me_

_And you give me all of you, oh oh_

  
  
_Crash._  Keith came out of his trance and looked around. There were pieces of broken glass around him. He leaned down to pick up the pieces. He still felt hazy. “ouch!” he cut his hand.

  
 “leave it be!”, Lance said. _Is that concerned voice for me?_ He took Keith's hand in his own and examined it. “it's a deep cut, we should get it bandaged”

  
 Keith tried to get his hand out of Lance's grip, he was blushing; “it's fine. I've had a thousand worst cuts than this.”

  
 ”yeah well I don't have time to nurse you around when it gets infected.”

  
 Keith complied. They went to infirmary. Lance cleaned the cut carefully and put a bandage on it. He took Keith's hand to his mouth and put a kiss on it; “there, now it'll get better sooner” Keith's heart sank; _what are you doing to me?_

  
 Later At lunch Keith asked Pidge: “so Pidge did you fix my door? I want my room back!” it wasn't that he didn't like sleeping next to Lance, he just was sure that he couldn't be that close to Lance again and do nothing.

  
 Pidge answered ; “why? You looked really comfy in Lance's bed this morning” Allura choked on her food at that.“ it wasn't like that! It … it was an accident!” Keith said quickly.

  
 “what?! did you trip on the ground and fell right to Lance's arms?!” Pidge said sarcastically.

  
 Keith didn't answer. He just crossed his arm and sent an angry look to Pidge. _Why is she doing this?_ He already felt embarrassed enough, Did she had to state to everyone that he had one-sided feelings for Lance?! But _were_ they? Were they really one sided? He remembered the concern in Lance's voice earlier. But then he remembered all the times Lance had declared he hated Keith. Maybe now that they were friends Lance didn't hate him anymore but he certainly didn't love Keith either. He felt bitter.

  
 The next days were filled with galra attacks. They had to form voltron again and again.  
He was making his way to the kitchen when Lance ran right into him. Keith caught him before he'd crash to the ground. “hey I got you” Keith chuckled. Scared blue eyes were looking at him. Keith felt his heart ache, _why does he look so afraid?!_

  
 “found them! they're already in position!” yelled Pidge. Lance got out of Keith's arms quickly.

  
 “come on” Pidge took one of each their hands and pulled them to the kitchen. _what's going on?_

  
 Everyone else were waiting for them in the kitchen. Keith felt like he'd been sent to the principle’s office.

  
 “I'm still not sure if we should…” but Coran interrupted Allura before she could finish; “believe me princess if I didn't thought we could sleep in the pods for another 10000 years and when we woke up they still would have no idea, I wouldn't agree to this”

  
 Keith kept sending Lance questioned looks but Lance was staring at his feet. He looked like a five year old who'd lost their favorite toy.

  
 “what's going on?” Keith asked.

  
 Pidge answered: “we have something we need to tell you, well really you _two_ have something you need to tell each other but since that's ...“

  
 “Pidge please don't do this he'll never talk to me again!” Lance said with a tone filled with pain. He wasn't his usual confident self. All color had been drained from his face. _what the hell is he talking about?_

  
 “Lance I really don't think…”

but Lance interrupted her again; “Pidge _please_ he'll hate me!” i _s he talking about me?_ Keith wanted to tell him there was nothing in this world that would make Keith hate him. _Nothing!_

  
 Pidge said: “ Lance believe me I'm doing this for your sake”. Lance looked like he was on the verge of crying. But he didn't say anything.

  
 This time Hunk continued: “ okay so you know how in the voltron we can sense each other feelings? Well we've noticed that uhm you both have uhm affectionate feelings for each other?!”

  
 _oh my_ _god_  Was he hearing right? Lance liked him? _Lance Likes me!! HE LIKES ME BACK._ Keith had never felt this happy in his life.

  
 Lance started rambling; “I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, I don't want to … wait…both?! he said both… why did he say both?… why both?...wait… so... you too?”

 before he could say another thing, Keith took his collar and pulled him in for a kiss. He felt Lance tense for a second before he was kissing him back. His hands came to rest on either side of Keith's face. Neither could get enough of the other. When they finally broke off to catch a breath. Their foreheads were still touching. Keith laughed; “so that's the was to shut you up!”

 Lance laughed with him; “you know kogane that was one hell of a first kiss!” Lance said still out of breath.

  
 Keith took a step backwards and started blushing as he said: “ well actually…” and he told Lance what had happened in the masquerade party.

  
 “you…I can't believe you...and I actually felt guilty about that!…” Lance suddenly changed his tone; ” but you know what? That doesn't seem fair, you have kissed me more than I've kissed you, we have to be even!” and he kissed Keith. This one was different it was more endearing?! Keith felt like he was melting.

  
 Someone cleared his throat. “yeah we're still here you know!”

  
 “fine!” Lance took one of Keith's hand and pulled him after. They went to the observation deck together and sat down next to each other.

 Lance smirked; “well we can have some alone time now”

  
 “you know I can't believe you thought I'd hate you if I knew, you're an idiot!”

  
 “hey! How about _you?!_ How come you didn't tell me anything!”

  
 “huh… I guess we're both idiots!”

  
 “ yeah, I guess we are.”

  
 They watched the stars together. Lance didn't say much after that. Keith felt like he was still in shock. Eventually they started walking to their rooms. As they got infront of Keith's room. He said “ good night” as he put a kiss on Lance's cheek.

 Lance started blushing, he put a hand on where Keith's lips had just kissed and whispered “ now it is” as he walked away.


	9. Chapter 9

 Lance was lying in his bed thinking about everything that had happened that day. Keith liked him! _He likes me_! And they've kissed! He felt shocked. _Did it actually happen? Or is this just a dream?_ But even if it was a dream, it wasn't one that Lance wanted to wake up from. _He likes me_!

  
 He woke up early next day. He couldn't wait to see Keith. He was the second person to kitchen. Hunk was making breakfast for everyone. Lance went to his help. “wow you must be really up on the hills” Hunk said as he gave Lance a hug: “ I'm so happy for you bro”

  
 Everyone else started coming to kitchen one by one. Keith was the last one. As he walked in Lance said: “hey gorgeous” Keith started blushing. _Aw he's cute_. Keith answered “hey” as he sat next to Lance. During breakfast Lance couldn't stop himself from staring at Keith. And for the first time he saw that Keith couldn't either.

  
 They had a mission that day. boy if before it was hard for Lance to sit that close to Keith and do nothing now that he knew the feeling was mutual, it was practically impossible.

“Lance Keith focus!” Allura ordered.

 “yeah Lance stop thinking about Keith's ass, you're disgusting” Pidge teased.

  
 Lance answered “say whatever you wanna say Pidgey but I know you secretly think we're cute!”

  
 Before she could answer the monster attacked again. They won the battle.  
That evening Lance went looking for Keith, he found him in the training room as usual. Lance slid down next to the wall and watched Keith fight. When the training was over, Keith walked to Lance, sweat was dripping from every inch of him, making his clothes stick to his body. He said: “god I feel so hot” as he picked up his water bottle.

Lance smirked; “you look so _hot”._  Keith rolled his eyes at him, but Lance saw the slight redness on his cheeks. “I think I have an idea come here” he made Keith sit in front of him and started putting his hair in a pony tail.

“I've wanted to this since day one” Lance said.

  
 “I thought you hated my mullet.” Keith said as he turned around looking at him. _Why is he so cute?!!god I love him so much!_

  
 Lance put a hand on his heart and faked an offended look “ how dare you?! That mullet is my favourite thing in the world” Keith rolled his eyes at him again but he had a tiny smile. Lance said with a smirk; “so how about some _one on one_ training”

  
 “actually I really do think you need some exercise on that. you're close combat skills need improving”

  
  _“excuse me?_ My close combat skills are _fine_ infact they're much better than yours” okay that was so not true Lance knew he did need help with his short range fighting

  
 “ you wanna bet?” Keith asked. There was a mischievous smile on his face.

  
 “oh you're _on”_

  
 They started fighting. Lance was soon out of breath. Keith was much better at this than him. Lance ended up on the floor in a few minutes. Keith was standing next to him.

“fine you win”, Lance pouted but just as Keith started smiling Lance tripped him and he fell right on top of Lance. He shot an angry look at Lance before realising the situation they were in. Half of Keith's body was on top of Lance's and they're faces were inches apart.

Keith smirked; “so what's my prize?”

Lance looked at him with wide eyes before half sitting on his hands and kissing him.

  
“and I thought you were annoying before!” Pidge's voice came out of nowhere. Keith got up quickly, blushing.

  
 As it turned out they were under attack again and had to form voltron. the next few weeks they were fighting constantly. But Lance spent any moment he could with Keith.

  
 “ paladins you've been working non stop, I think you deserve a rest we're all going to a mall together” Coran said at breakfast.

  
 Before Lance could show any excitement Allura yelled “YES!” everyone turned to look at her; “what?! I haven't gone to one in 10000 years!”

  
 So they all went to a mall the next day. It wasn't the same one as before since they didn't wanted a lunatic guard running after them. They all walked down together. Keith wanted to stop at every single knife job and Lance had to pull him away by his clothes.

 Eventually they ended up in the food court. They were eating some thing that tasted like ice cream. Lance said: “ man I miss ice cream”

Pidge added: “ and pizza”

Hunk added “and lasagna.”

  
 “my mom makes the best lasagna in the world, I wish you could try it” Lance said as he looked at Keith. He felt sad. He missed his mama, he missed his whole family, he wished he could see them. he wished he could show Keith to them.

 Keith had a strange look on his face as he put his hands on Lance's and gave them a tiny squeeze. He said: “ you'll see her again” Lance believed him.

  
 They were back at the castle. And Pidge was showing Lance and Hunk what she'd bought. It was something like peanut butter, they each had took a jar and were finishing it with their fingers. when Keith walked in. “dude you gotta try this, it even tastes better than peanut butter” Hunk said.

“I've never had peanut butter” Keith said.

All three of them looked at him like he'd grown horns on his head.

“what? What do you mean you've never tried peanut butter?! Did you live under a rock?... oh sorry I forgot you _actually did!”_ Pidge sounded personally offended.

  
 Lance laughed; “ seriously Keith you have to try this. Take a spoon and...” but before he could finish Keith leaned down, took one of Lance's finger out of the jar and started eating it off Lance's finger. Lance froze. He felt heat go through all his body. he was sure every single point of his face was red. _This boy is gonna be the end of me!_

  
 Pidge grinned: “from the look on Lance's face I can tell you haven't done it yet”

  
 Both Lance and Keith were a dark shade of red.

  
 “Pidge! You can't just ask people that!” Hunk said.

  
 “ I didn't ask any thing I just stated my observation!”

  
 Keith and Lance were walking to their rooms when Keith asked “Lance, ...sleep with me tonight?” Lance choked on his breath before staring at Keith with wide eyes and an open mouth. Keith started blushing; he stuttered; “no... I didn't... I don't mean like that. I meant just sleeping next to each other.”

 Lance nodded and followed him into his room. They both took their jackets off. “ uhm is it... is it okay if I take my jeans off I can't sleep with them on.” Lance asked hesitantly. Keith nodded with a slight blush. Keith lied down on the bed, Lance crawled next to him. He put his head on Keith's chest.

 Keith said “tell me about your family” Lance started talking, describing each of his siblings and all their little adventures. He could feel Keith was smiling even if he couldn't see his face. After a while Lance felt his face going wet. He was crying. Keith started brushing Lance's hair with a hand; “you’ll go home again, I promise”

 Lance pressed his face even further to Keith's chest, and cried harder, Keith kissed his forehead, whispering reassuring voices in his ear.

  
 Next morning Lance felt better than he’d had in months. He only said “thanks” but he knew Keith had realised how much this meant to him.

  
 They went to breakfast. Pidge smirked at Lance: “so I came to wake you up earlier you weren't in your bed!” she raised an eyebrow throwing an accusing look at both of them.

  
 Suddenly Allura rushed inside kitchen: “we've received a distress signal get to your lions” Lance and Keith shared a small kiss before going to their lion. It had became a kinda routine for them to share a kiss before and after each mission.

  
 they had to rescue a planet but it turned out to be an easy job. _Too_ easy.

“guys am I the only one who feels like this job was way too easy?” he told the others as they sat down in the common room.

 Keith rolled his eyes at him; “only _you_ can complain about something being too easy” with an irritated voice.

  
 “oh you know you love me!” Lance teased.

  
“yeah I do.”

  
 Lance froze; “I ... I have to go” he ran out before he could stop himself.

 It wasn't that he didn't love Keith back,  _no dear god_ he loved Keith with all he got. He loved Keith more than anything in the world but he just didn't knew Keith loved him _back._ Yeah he knew he liked Lance thanks to Pidge, but he thought it would take a long time to make Keith fall in love with him! _I have to tell him I love him_ but after the dick move he just pulled right now he had to make it special.

  
 He knocked on Keith's door; “ Keith can you come to the observation deck?” he said quickly and left before Keith would open the door. He had lit up tiny candles all over the deck and was putting on music when Keith showed up.

 He held his hands up for Keith's; “dance with me”

 Keith crossed his arms “no” he looked mad.

 Lance asked again “dance with me, please?” Keith sighed but accepted his hand. After a few minutes of dancing, Lance started talking;  
"I used to think that I hated you, I wanted to hate you. Everyone always compared me to you and told me I could never be as good as you. And then I _met_ you and you were just a pretty boy with an attitude but you still managed to beat me at everything.”

  
 "Lance, I ...”Keith interrupted.

  
 “no let me finish” he continued ”, and then I liked you. I hated that I liked you. You had even managed to win _my_ heart. But no matter how hard I tried I couldn't stop liking you. God you piss me off! You make my heart go faster and slower at the same time, you took over my world. you're the first thing that comes to my head when I wake up and the last when I go to sleep, you're even in my dreams, and I... I _love_ you”

 Keith was looking at him, he was smiling but his eyes looked teary. Lance said again “I love you so much! so _so_ much!” and suddenly sweet lips were pushing on his own. Keith said; “I love you too, you cheesy idiot”

  
 Lance pulled a smug face “good!” “and I'm about to get a whole lot cheesier!”

 he took off the necklace from his neck “My mother, _my mermaid mother,_ gave this to me, I want you to have it”

 Keith was looking at him with wide eyes; “are you sure?” he said as he turned around . Lance put the pendant around Keith's neck as he whispered “yeah I'm sure” one day he would tell Keith what the pendant really meant.

  
 He put a kiss on Keith's neck. Keith turned to look at him again and they were making out this time with more want than ever. Keith's soft lips were kissing him,keith bit his lower lip and lance let him in, their mouths becoming the same. Lance's hand were on Keith's hips. One of Keith's hands were on his neck tugging his hair there, the other on his waist. The kiss got more intense every second. Lance backed Keith up to the wall. Keith grabbed him by his shirt and pulled him closer. he wrapped his leg around Lance's. Keith's hands were beneath his shirt burning every point of Lance's skin. Every part of their bodies were pressed against each other. Lance was out of breath but he didn't care he kissed Keith as if he was the air. He couldn't even decide which one was letting out the tiny moans. He sent his hand on Keith's waist beneath the shirt receiving a gasp from the boy. He started trailing the kiss down to Keith's jaw, neck and his collar bone.

  
 "guys get here quickly I found something” Pidge's voice broadcasted through the whole castle.

  
 They both sighed, Lance banged his head slowly at Keith's shoulder.

  
 "we should go” Keith said exasperated.

  
 "to be continued “ Lance said as they walked to common room. As soon as they walked in Pidge said “ guys you're not gonna believe what ...” she stopped as they got closer “why are you all red and out of breath?” she raised her eyebrow.

  
 “ uh... we were running?!” Lance answered

.   
 “yeah _right,_ did I call you in a middle of something ?”

  
“yes” “no” Keith and Lance said at the same time. Lance told him; “you can't just tell her that!”

 Keith answered; “she’s not stupid, besides I thought you loved to brag about this stuff!”

 “no I ...”  
But Allura cut him off; “Pidge I believe you had something important to tell us”

  
 “yes, so I was going through the ship's memories I found this morning, seeing if I could find anything on shiro when I found this!” she said excited as she played a video; there was an older man with glasses his clothes looks old and almost torn apart. He looked familiar, Is that...

  
 But Pidge's voice broke his thoughts ;”it's my dad! he's alive!” she said excited “I've found the location, we have to go rescue him!”

  
 Allura looked unsure “ Pidge I'm not sure, something is off. this feels _wrong...”_

  
 Pidge cut her off; “who cares how it feels?! he's my dad! I'm getting him back! wouldn't you?” she threw a look at Allura.

  
 This time Keith spoke; “Pidge this really looks like a trap”

  
 “but we'll do it anyway” Lance interrupted him, he shot a questioning look to Lance. “come on Keithy boy since when do you care if it's a trap?! Besides I have feeling if we don't help her she'll do it alone anyway.“

 Pidge nodded as agreement to what he said.  
“very well, but we need a solid plan” Allura spoke.

  
 They spent the whole night planning. Pidge thought of everything, she was like a ball of energy. Next morning Pidge, Lance and Keith walked to the hanger. They would only take the green lion since it was able to be invisible. The castle would stay farther away and only attack if necessary. Hunk would stay in castle in yellow lion in alert mode and would come to their rescue if necessary.

  
 Keith, Lance and Pidge sneaked inside the galra station. After running down a few corridors Pidge said: “I've hacked into their info and no one is supposed to come from this point on but Lance I need you to stand here on guard and shoot any galra that you see before they turn the alarm on.”

  
 “we weren't supposed to separate!” Keith said hesitantly clearly worried about Lance.

  
“we need to!” Pidge answered.

  
 Keith sighed in acceptance but before they left he stood on his toes and gave Lance a kiss on his forehead; “be _careful”_

  
 “always am!” Lance said, winking at him. But Keith looked at him with worried eyes. Lance couldn't help pulling him in a half hug; “don't worry you're not getting rid of me that easy!”

  
 Pidge pulled Keith after him; “come on lover boy, he'll be fine!” Lance watched them vanish to the next corridor.

  
 It wasn't a few minute after they left when the first guard showed up he shot him down. A couple more minutes passed before Lance heard screams from his helmet; “guys are you okay?”

  
 Keith's voice answered: “LANCE IT'S SHIRO! _SHIRO!_ HE'S HERE! HE'S ALIVE!” shiro?! Lance felt happiness warming his heart.  
a few other guards started showing up at that moment, Lance tried to shoot them. Pidge continued; “and matt! My brother!” wow they were getting everyone back!

  
 More guards were coming out of every direction. “guys I'm all happy and everything but can you hurry up more guards are coming!” Lance said as he was shooting.

  
 Keith's voice answered quickly; “I'm coming Lance hold on!”

  
 “but I can't hold on! I've already _fallen_ for you” Lance joked.

  
 “really Lance this is _not_ the time!” it was shiro's voice.

  
 “man I can't believe you haven't even been back for 5 minutes and you've already started to suck the fun out of everything!” more guards! _Where are they even coming from?!_

  
 “Lance!” Keith said.

  
 “I'm just joking! Shiro it's good to hear your voice but seriously I _need_ help”

  
 Galra have started to crawl out of every corner. Something was wrong, there was too many of them. He looked outside and saw the yellow lion fighting galra ships, but more and more kept coming. “something is wrong” he said as he looked outside more carefully and then he saw it. In a corner hidden was a wormhole and ships were pouring out of it.

“guys it's a trap! We have to have to get outta here now!” he yelled.

 He started making his way to his friends’ location with his shield on, but the galra soldiers were shooting at him. _Shit_ one of the bullets hit his leg. _No no no_ he took the guard down  and turned to run again gritting his teeth at the pain. but he fell to the ground as another bullet went through his side. He tried to get up but the pain was too much and as they hit his arm he fell back down again unable to use the bayard.  _This isn't happening_ the galra were only a few feet behind him; “guys you have to leave without me”

“Lance wa...”, but before he could hear anymore of Keith's voice someone knocked the helmet off his head.

“we got one” was the last thing he heard before another kick knocked him out of consciousness.

  
 When he woke up, his hands and feet were tied to a vertical metallic bed. He didn't have his armour, only the black suit beneath it. the blood stained all over it he could still feel the pain of the shots.  _This is not good_

  
 “ah finally paladin, I was getting bored” said a cold voice that sent chills down Lance's spine. The guy it belonged to was galra but he had white hair and a maniacal smile.

  
 “I'm guessing you're Lotor” Lance raised an eyebrow.

  
 “ yes and you are the blue paladin of voltron“

  
 “always nice to meet a fan!” Lance tried to act cool so Lotor couldn't tell how afraid he was.

  
 Lotor laughed; “a fan? Of what? Patheticness?!” Lotor stepped closer to him. taking Lance's chin in his hand, Lance tried to move his head away from him. 

  
“what do you want from me?”

  
 “just where I can find the rest of voltron, I want to get rid of you once and for all I'm getting quite tired of your constant  interference"

  
“I'll never tell you!” and he wouldn't. no matter what 

  
 A smile crept to Lotor's face; “I was hoping you'd say that”

 and he moved to a table that was next to lance, it was filled with tools and knives. well Lance had seen enough movies to know what they were for. panic rising within him.

he faked a grin; "is that supposed to scare me?!"

Lotor laughed: "oh it really should"

 

he started cutting Lance with something sharp. Lance bit his lip so he wouldn't scream he wasn't gonna give this guy the satisfaction. Lotor he continued: "you should be scared you see I don't care what happens to you either you break and tell me where they are or you die after this and they still won't be able to form voltron either way I _win!"_ he stopped for a second changing to another tool which looked like... _oh god no!_   _Is that a fucking drill?!_

Lotor smiled: "so tell me, don't tell me I don't care. I'm just gonna enjoy this" he hummed as he continued.  _oh god that hurts_

 Lance was scared to his bones which ironically enough was exactly were Lotor was drilling to now. the pain oh it was horrible! but he wasn't gonna scream so instead he thought about his family. He thought about his friends.

 but the pain kept getting worse and worse as Lotor changed his tools, each one more excruciating than the last. and when he felt the fifth bone breaking he couldn't keep it in anymore he screamed, he tried to think of something anything but the pain,  _Keith_ he tried to focus on Keith and for a moment he swore he could hear Keith's voice; _I'll find you, you know that right?! I won't ever give up on you._ but the pain took over him. After what felt like hours Lotor backed off.

 Every single part of Lance's body hurt but he still tried to pull a smug face; “you should've learnt from your daddy's mistake, now voltron is gonna crush you”

  
 Lotor laughed; “ you really think they will come for you! I mean _look_ at you!”

  
 “I know they will” will they? Lance knew they all loved him but would they really risk that much for him? Keith will, _right?!_

  
 “well I hope they will that just makes it easier for me to kill them” there was something so sure in his voice that made Lance wish they wouldn't come even against his survival instincts.

  
 “ you still won't tell me where they are?” lotor asked again. Lance spat blood; “never”

  
 "good" Lotor smiled as he raised his hands, there was some kind of metal in them glowing with heat and something else _was that...?!_ at the end and he pushed it to Lance's higher abdomen. Lance screamed, the last thing he saw before passing out was the shape it left on, it looked like two wings, the symbol of voltron. Lotor had some sick level of humour.

He heard Keith again; _I'm coming for you_

 

 

 


	10. Chapter 10

 As Pidge pulled Keith away from Lance, every single cell of his body told him to go back. He felt a pit in his stomach. _Something feels wrong!_ But that was stupid. They had done a thousand more missions like this he'd never felt like this before. And Lance was perfectly capable of protecting himself! So why couldn't Keith stop worrying, why did he felt something bad was happening!

 After a few minutes he saw a movement, a purple glowing hand. _Could it be?_ And then Keith saw him , Shiro _Shiro._ Keith felt stunned for a few moments before he ran to hug him; "Shiro!"

   
 “ wow Keith I almost zapped you in half”, Shiro said hugging him back. Keith couldn't believe it. It really was Shiro. Alive! after all this time! Keith felt more happy than ever. When he finally backed away he saw Pidge was hugging the guy next to Shiro. Shiro explained; “this is Matt , Pidge's brother”

 Keith looked at them with wide eyes. _Is this really happening_?! This was one of the best days ever they were getting everyone back!.

 Matt asked Pidge; “Pidge?! I thought you hated when I called you that!”

  
 “yeah I did but then you were gone and I missed you doing it, clearly I was _wrong!”_ but she was hugging him more tightly for any of them to believe it.

  
 “guys are you okay?” Lance's worried voice came through the comms.

  
 Keith answered: “LANCE IT'S SHIRO!SHIRO! HE'S HERE! HE'S ALIVE!”

Pidge continued; “and Matt! My brother!”

  
“guys I'm all happy and everything but can you hurry up more guards are coming!” Lance said.

  
 Keith answered quickly; “I'm coming Lance hold on!”

  
 “but I can't hold on! I've already fallen for you” _that is so Lance_ joking even when he's in trouble!

  
“really Lance this is _not_ the time!” Shiro scolded Lance.

  
“man I can't believe you haven't even been back for 5 minutes and you've already started to suck the fun out of everything!”

  
 “Lance!” Keith said.

  
 “I'm just joking! Shiro it's good to hear your voice but seriously I _need_ help over here” Keith felt a pit in his stomach he started walking faster.

  
 “something is wrong” Lance's voice continued; “guys it's a trap! We have to have to get outta here now!” _this is not good_ Keith started running, a shout of pain came from Lance. then another. he had to find Lance

“guys you have to leave without me”

“Lance wait there I'm coming” but there was no answer; “Lance?” “LANCE?” he started to run faster but suddenly strong hands were pulling him backwards; “what are you doing I have to find Lance!”

 he cried but Shiro hold him tighter “we'll come back for him”,

“NO LET ME GO! I HAVE TO GET HIM! LET ME GO!” Keith kicked and punched trying to break free but Shiro forced him to get in the green lion. As the lion started flying Shiro let him go Keith shoved him; “we have to go back he's still in there!”

  
 “we can't there's too many of them”

  
 “ I don't care! WE CAN'T JUST LEAVE HIM THERE!” _this isn't happening!_

  
 “and we won't we'll go back for him as soon as we can”

  
“we go back for him RIGHT NOW!” _I won't lose him!_

  
 Shiro shook his head; “we need reinforcement, a plan, we _can't_ just go back”

  
“LIKE HELL WE CAN'T” Keith went next to Pidge to make her change course. But she had green on autopilot.

  
 “Shiro is right we need to go back to the castle” Pidge said.

  
 “but it's _Lance!”_

  
“Keith we'll get him back”

  
“ I can't lose him!”

  
 “you won't. We won't. they've taken enough of my family I'm not letting them have Lance too, we're gonna get him back” her tone had a determination that made Keith believe her. She hugged him, she was crying, but Keith wouldn't cry. Why would he cry? He was going to get Lance back. And if they had hurt even a hair of Lance, he would kill every single one of those galra.

  
 When they got to the castle , Hunk, coran and Allura were waiting for them. Allura ran to Shiro's arm as soon as she saw him. But Keith was looking at Hunk. Hunk looked around a few times before saying; “guys where's Lance?”

  
 Keith walked away as others started to retell what happened, he couldn't stand there and listen to it. He went to the observation deck. He looked at all the stars and planets. _Where are you?_ He hold the necklace Lance had given him yesterday. _I'll find you, you know that right?! I won't ever give up on you._ he thought of Lance of their memories. He remembered a few days ago;

  
_Lance made him watch a movie with him, but after a few minutes Keith dozed off. When he woke up his head was on something soft and someone had put a soft sheet on him. He opened his eyes. His head was on Lance's lap and the boy was looking at him._   
_“you're missing your movie” Keith said._

  
_“this view is worth missing any movie” Lance answered, looking at Keith with admiration._

_Keith felt warmth rushing to his cheeks. Lance bent down to kiss him._

  
 Keith would get him back no matter what.   
Someone sat next to him. it was Hunk; “I knew I could find you here, Lance told me this was you two's spot”

  
 Keith said: “I'm sorry, it's my fault he's taken. I shouldn't have left him there”

  
 “don't be crazy of course it's not your fault. Besides it doesn't really matter we _will_ get him back”

  
 They went to the common room when Allura asked them to. Everyone was there plus Matt and some alien guy. They explained that they were part of a rebellion against Zarkon and now Lotor. Matt said; “ our informers have told us that Lotor has taken Lance to the main ship”

  
 “I have a plan” Keith said before explaining his plan when he was finished he said: “it's a stupid plan”

  
 “yeah” Hunk agreed.

  
 “it's probably gonna get us all killed”

  
“yup” Pidge agreed.

  
 “I understand if any of you wants out?” but  no one did.

  
 “he may be a pain in the ass but he's our pain in the ass” Allura said. She was too angry to have any of her normal verbal filters. Shiro looked at her with wide eyes before saying: “yeah he is”

  
 “we'll help you too, this looks like an opportunity to kill Lotor, and I think he has our dad there too” Matt said. They all started to work on preparation for the plan.

 Keith hold the necklace again; _I'm coming for you_

The first part of the plan had gone pretty well :Keith, Shiro, matt and Pidge were captured, hancuffed and more than a dozen guards were taking them to Lotor’s ship.

As they finally arrived and the door opened the first thing Keith saw was Lance. _Lance._ It hurt Keith to even look at him. He was sitting on the ground, covered in blood. His clothes were torn. there were cuts and burns all over his body. His left arm was turned back in a very wrong way. But that wasn't the real problem, it wasn't even the fact that there were no handcuffs on him. No the real problem was his _eyes_ and how he looked at them. As if he didn't noticed them. His eyes looked so dead. There was nothing in them no feeling no recognition no fight nothing he looked as if he was lost.

  
 “what the hell did you do to him?” Keith asked the galra who was smiling at them he assumed that was Lotor.

  
“nothing good!”

  
 Keith hated the guy. He had just met Lotor but he hated him. How could anyone hurt Lance? Kind funny self sacrificing Lance!

  
“I'll kill you“, Keith yelled he tried to break free but the cuffs were too strong and three galra were holding him down.

  
 “no you won't” Lotor smiled even further “I have to say I'm really disappointed after all I've heard from the great voltron I was expecting him to resist longer. But look at him one hour with haggar and he's broken stuck in his memories of the past, such a weakling”

  
 Haggar smiled maniacally behind him.

  
“he's stronger than what you think” Shiro said from next to Keith.

  
 “is he?!” Lotor kicked Lance in the stomach but Lance didn't even flinche. He remained unresponsive. But Keith didn't. How dare he lay a hand on Lance? _My Lance?!_ "dont you fucking dare hurt him!"

 Lotor laughed: "look at him! I've already _hurt_ him!"

 _I'll kill you_ Keith tried to break free.

“Keith stop!” Shiro said. Keith knew he wasn't acting as planned but he couldn't just sit there watch Lance get hurt.

  
 Lotor’s attention came back to them; “so you're the famous Keith” Keith looked at him puzzled. _How does he know me?_

  
 Lotor tilted his head as he looked at Keith; “he kept screaming your name, he probably thought you would save him” Keith's heart sank.

  
 Lotor pulled Lance up by his hair forcing him to look at Keith; “ look at him you thought he'd rescue you! he's even more helpless than you” he threw Lance back down. Lance remained still on the ground. “ pathetic!” lotor said.

 Keith could feel his blood boiling. he was struggling with the guards. Lotor gripped Lance's face with one hand violently; “but as pathetic as he is, he sure is a beautiful little thing, maybe I'll have some fun with him later”

  
 “you’re sick!” Pidge yelled.

  
 Keith would kill him. He knew lotor was trying to get on his nerves but he couldn't help it. he finally broke free from the guards. he started pouncing towards Lotor but he changed his course. _Lance is more important right now._ He sat infront of him. Lance looked at him with dead eyes but Keith didn't back away. He cupped Lance's face with his hands still cuffed together ; “Lance listen to me I know you're in there. I know you can hear me. Lance you're not alone. We love you. I love you.” He felt like he saw a flicker in Lance's eyes but Lance didn't say anything.

 Someone punched Keith and he was thrown on the floor. It was Lotor. he said; “enough!” “ Haggar find out everything they know and then kill them” Lotor ordered. 

Just as haggar said “yes sire” a blade went through her chest. Lance was standing behind her with Keith's blade. He must've taken it when Keith was talking to him. Even with all his injuries Lance managed to stand straight and proud above her dead body “ you're not hurting any of them” Lance said before he fell to the ground.

  
 “now” Shiro yelled. Shiro Matt and Pidge broke free. And all hell broke loose. There were fires on the ship from the castle, the rebellion and the blade of Marmora on the outside. But inside they were on their own all the guards were attacking them and they were fighting back. Lance was still on the ground , Keith ran to him he put a hand beneath his head; “Lance!... you're you again!”

 “no I'm just a very murderous 6 year old, I'm not Shiro you know” Lance answered with a weak voice. _damn it Lance_ even in this situation he wouldn't stop joking. Keith laughed.

  
 “Keith get him to the healing pods now” Shiro ordered in the middle of fighting. And Keith was reminded how injured Lance was he was barely conscious. Keith put a hand under his knees and another behind his back and pulled him up. and Keith started walking to their ship while carrying Lance. Lance felt so light in his hand. Keith was worried. How much blood had he lost?

  
 “you're stronger than I thought” Lance muttered. He continued; “ this is the only way of transportation I'll be using from now on”

 Keith only smiled at him. Keith would carry would carry him to anywhere if it meant he never had to see Lance this hurt ever again.

  
 “I can't believe you came for me” Lance barely said.

  
 “did you really thought I wouldn't?! I promised you would go home again didn't I?” Keith answered.

  
 “but I   _am_ home” Lance whispered looking at him. Keith's heart was beating fast. Lance tried to move his hand to Keith's face but cried in pain.

  
 “woah are you okay?” Keith asked as he fastened his pace.

  
 Lance smiled at him reassuringly ;“nothing a couple of hours in the pod can't fix”

  
 Keith was sure it was a fake smile. He could tell Lance was in a lot of pain. But even so he was trying to calm Keith. _Dear god_ Keith loved this boy and how selfless he could be.

  
“but you know something good came out of all this” Lance said.

  
Keith threw an incredulous look at him.

  
“I remember the bonding moment”  
Keith laughed at him; “let's just hope you won't forget this one”

  
 “I don't know I mean I'm in a lot of pain I probably won't remember any of this”  
Keith kissed his forehead. He knew Lance was joking but the pain part was probably true.

  
 When he got to the castle, he told Allura to put him in a pod “see you in a bit _samurai”_ Lance said as Keith walked away from him.

 Keith went back to his lion. Shiro had taken black. So he took red. Coran was with blue. Hunk told them that he had Mr.holt and was back in his lion. Pidge was in hers too. They formed voltron and got rid of the main ship with the help of the blade. With Haggar gone it was easy to destroy the remaining ships. They had come to rescue Lance but somehow he ended up saving them. Keith felt so proud of him.

  
It was hours later when the battle was finally over. they were all standing next to Lance in healing pod

  
“I can't believe the galra empire's reign is finally over” Allura said.

  
 “actually I've checked again and again and I'm sure Lotor got away” Pidge informed them.

  
 Keith frowned; “what?!”

  
 Shiro put hand on his shoulder ;”relax we'll catch him next time plus I think he's pretty much powerless now”

  
 Keith accepted but he was gonna make Pidge look for him later. He would kill him for hurting Lance. But for now he had to be there for Lance. He stood next to the healing pod and looked at Lance.

 

 

 


	11. Chapter 11

 As soon as Lance opened his eyes he was falling , someone caught him. _Keith_ “nice catch”, Lance mumbled. Keith hugged him tight. Lance's shoulder was getting wet. Was Keith crying?

 “ hey it's okay I'm okay you saved me remember” Lance patted Keith on the back. “more like you saved us” Keith said before kissing him. God Lance had missed these lips.

  
 “okay leave some of him for the rest of us “ someone said from behind them.  
Both Keith and Lance chuckled as they broke off. And Hunk was hugging him now. “hey buddy” he said.

  
 then it was Coran's turn; “ you really worried us my boy”

  
 Lance turned to Pidge and hugged her ; “Pidge!”. every one started laughing. He looked at them “what?!”

  
 “that's not me!” said an annoyed Pidge. _Wait what?_  There were two Pidges standing in Front of him. But wait now that Lance looked closer he saw small differences between them one was taller, had a more pointy face and was more muscular.

  
 “you're Matt! Sorry you look just like each other” he said.

  
 “no we _don't!”_ Pidge crossed her arms.

  
 “sorry Pidgey but you really _do”_ he said as he forced her to a hug. He continued; “ wow Shiro you're an idiot how couldn't you tell they were related”

  
 He looked around when he didn't hear a response. “ where is Shiro ... and Allura?”

  
 “they'll probably be here soon since lover boy here yelled through all of the castle that you were awake” Matt said. _He is just like Pidge!_

  
 “aw mullet I didn't know you cared that much” Lance teased.

  
 “dude he camped out side your pod the last five days” Hunk said. Keith blushed.  
Lance kissed Keith again; “you did?!”

  
 “are you surprised?!” Keith asked him.  
Just then Allura and Shiro ran inside. Both of them said “ Lance!” as each pulled him in a hug.

  
 “where were you?” Pidge asked them suspiciously.

  
 Shiro and Allura looked at each other before Allura finally said “uhm we were ... uh busy?!” well it's obvious what _those_ two were doing

  
 “Ew gross” Pidge and Matt said at the same time.

  
 “oh god there is _two_ of them” Lance said with a fake panicked voice.

  
 “don't compare me to her. She is _evil”_ Matt said.

  
 “how dare you?! I'm an angel” she answered.

  
 “yeah so was _satan!”_ Matt said. Pidge pouted at him. Everyone else was laughing at the fighting siblings.

  
 They all made their way to the kitchen. Lance had his hand around Keith's neck for support since he still couldn't walk properly on his own.

  
 Lance met Mr.holt there they shaked hands and Lance congratulated him on making two of the most evil people he had ever seen, which earned him a nudge from Pidge. Lance faked a pain cry. he stopped when He saw Keith throw a deadly look at Pidge.

  
 They all ended up in the common room. Shiro took a look at Lance and Keith sitting almost in each other's lap; “so I take it you two...”

  
 But Pidge interrupted him; “you're probably thinking now it's easier to be around them! Well it's not! They still bicker all the time but now we also have to witness them making out too!” Keith had started going red.  
Pidge continued; “but at least now we don't have to tolerate all the sexual frustration when forming voltron!”

  
 Lance snapped; “hey that wasn't only us! Shiro was responsible for that too for months”

  
 Everyone looked at him. Pidge asked; “what do you mean?!”

  
 “you know Shiro pinning for Allura!”  
Shiro gave him a funny look. Pidge said; “Lance stop blaming Shiro! He only started liking Allura a few weeks before ...going missing!”

  
 “what?! Come on he's been panting after her for at least a year!”

  
 “what?!” almost everyone except Shiro said at the same time. Allura turned to look at Shiro. He was blushing a little; “I tried so hard hiding it, how did you notice?!” he asked Lance.

  
 “yeah how _did_ you notice when even _I_ didn't?!” Pidge sounded offended.

  
 Lance shrugged; “I'm just good at reading people!”

  
Everyone laughed at him.

  
 “hey I _am_ ... Keith is just... an exception!”

he turned to look at Shiro: “I saw how you looked at her everytime you knew she wasn't looking at you” _I used to do the same to Keith_

 “how you tried to make her smile, and when she did you couldn't stop staring at her!” _I couldn't stop myself looking everytime Keith laughed_

“how you made up excuses just to be near her!” _I used to go to training room to train but end up watching Keith._

“how you tried to impress him!” _I really did try but Keith was just so much better at everything._

“ everytime he was sad you were sad too!” _seeing Keith sad made my heart crush_

“how you got nervous just being near him!” _I_   _got so anxious around Keith._

“how you enjoyed every moment you spent with him!” _I even loved fighting with Keith._

“how you thought he was perfect!” _and Keith really was perfect_.

 He finally fell silent as he felt everyone's gaze on him. Keith was looking at him with such a fond expression.

 Hunk said: “buddy are you talking about Shiro or _yourself?!”_ everyone laughed. Lance felt his cheeks warming up. Keith put a tiny kiss on them.

  
 Shiro said: “I guess it takes one to know one!”

 then he started telling them everything that had happened after he went missing the galra catching him and how the rebellion found him and Matt had recognised him. And then they were telling Shiro everything that happened to them after he went missing. Lance felt Keith stiffen next to him, he took Keith's hands in his own. When they got to the part about how the black lion wouldn't accept Keith alone and Lance and Keith had to pilot it together Shiro said; “yeah...that's probably my fault”

  
 “what? How?” Keith asked.

  
 “I might've asked black to do it”

  
Keith and Lance stared at him. Lance finally said; “Shiro you are _such_ a _little...”_

  
 “Lance I'm almost twice your size!”

  
 Lance stood up “well I can't call you a big shit!”

  
 Keith stood next to him” yes you can cause that's _exactly_ what he is!”

  
 Shiro threw them an apologetic look ;”I'm sorry guys but I needed you to work together for voltron” Lance and Keith sat down. Shiro continued “plus I knew you two were totally into each other”

  
 Both Keith and Lance sighed. Lance asked “did everybody on this ship know that?”  
Pidge grinned; “ no not _everybody!_  ...You two were completely oblivious!” everyone laughed. Keith pulled Lance by his hand: “come on we're _leaving!”_

  
 Pidge yelled after them: “don't do anything I wouldn't do!” _that little gremlin!_

  
 They walked to Keith's room. As soon as the door closed behind them. Keith's lips were on his;"what you said was the sweetest thing in the world!"

  Keith was kissing Lance with love lust missing guilt and other feelings which Lance's mind was too focus on the kiss to recognise. Keith pushed him against the door, his hand moving on Lance's body when they suddenly reached the burn on his lower torso. Lance tried not to but he flinched from pain. Keith stopped quickly: “are you okay?”

  
 “yeah I'm fine” but Keith had realised something was wrong .he lifted Lance's shirt until he saw the marks across his torso. One of his hand went infront of his mouth as he gasped ; “I'm sorry” his other hand was brushing the mark very carefully. Lance closed his eyes both in pleasure and pain. “just a souvenir from Lotor”

 he tried to distract both of them; “any way where were we?” he tried to lean in to another kiss, but Keith backed away; “ you were about to rest”

  
 “come on I thought we were in a middle of something!”

  
 “ Lance we've waited all this time a couple of days is nothing”

  
 “ _a couple of days_?”

  
 “just until that heals”

  
 Lance took his hand; “ Keith I ...I don't think this one will heal, there was some sort of quintessence on the metal he burned it with, if it was gonna heal it would after five days in the pods”

  
 Keith's eyes were sad and filled with guilt; “I'm so sorry!”

  
 “stop saying that its not _your_ fault!”

  
 “yes it is I... I left you there”

  
 “I asked you to and you didn't have another  choice”

  
Keith nodded but Lance could still see the guilt in him. “come on I'm tired” he pulled Keith to the bed. Keith took off his jacket As he crawled next to Lance he said; “you slept for _five_ days in the pod!”

 they were lying next to each other while facing one another.

  
 “not with you I didn't” Lance answered which made Keith smile before his eyes got sad again; “Lance what did they exactly do to you? You looked so ...broken when we got there “

  
 Lance stiffened, he didn't answer for a moment. but when he looked at Keith it made him spill everything. how Lotor had tortured him and how he had resisted but when it was time for Haggar... she made him relive his life. And how she made him stuck in a certain memory until he heard Keith,   _you're not alone_ and how everything became clear for him with Keith's voice. How he pulled the knife from Keith as he was talking to him and waited for the right moment to attack haggar. “well you pretty much know everything that happened after that.”

 Keith's hand came up to Lance's face to brush off tears that Lance hadn't notice were there. Lance leaned in to his touch and closed his eyes. “what memory was it?” Keith asked.

 “what?” Lance asked puzzled.

  
 Keith asked again; “you said you got stuck in a memory, what was it?” Lance opened his eyes. He hadn't even told his mama or Hunk about it, but this was Keith. _his Keith_ and he was looking at Lance with eyes full of concern and love.

“when I was about six. Right before I got adopted, I spent few months in a foster house and well let's just say the guy there had a belief in a firm hand.” Lance laughed bitterly before continuing;” I couldn't help me but what was worse was that I couldn't help any of the other kids. God I was useless then and I am useless now” Lance tried to look away, he didn't want to see a disappointment look on Keith's face, but Keith put both his hands on Lance's face and made Lance face him. Keith was crying but Lance didn't see disappointment in his eyes only love and caring... and pride?!

  
 “you're not useless now and you never were before. Lance you were just a kid what were you supposed to do?! and I know you did anything you could for others. Just as you did with us. You don't think I know everything you do for our team how you care for every single person on this castle. Lance you have a heart of gold. Even when we came to your rescue,  _you_ killed Haggar and saved our asses. So don't you dare ever feel useless!”

 Lance was crying again but for a very different reason; “ god what did I ever do to deserve you?!” as he put a small kiss on Keith's mouth.

 “you were born” neither of them said anything after wards they stayed like that staring into each other's eyes. Talking without even saying a word until they both dozed off.

  
“NO NO DON'T HURT HIM” Lance woke up to a screaming Keith. He sat up trying to make Keith wake up; “ Keith wake up it's just a dream”

“NO NO”

Lance shaked Keith until he woke up; “you... I saw you... he was....” Keith put his head in the crook of Lance's neck. Lance put a hand on his head and another on his back “it's okay it was just a nightmare _you're_ okay. I'm okay” he said as he patted Keith. He was still shaking in Lance's arms.

 Lance tried to make a joke; “as the one who got tortured I thought I was gonna have the nightmares “

 Keith didn't laugh he started talking instead; “ when they got you I started thinking of all the things that I would do to get you back, after a while it turned to a question of the things I wouldn't do to get you back, and the answer was nothing there was _nothing_ that I wouldn't do to get you back”

  
 Lance patted him again; “and you _did_ get me back!”

  
 “but he's still out there”

  
 “Lotor? He can't do anything now, we’ll find him together” but there was a pit in Lance's stomach that was afraid of what Lotor could do. You don't spend that much time getting tortured by someone and grow to think they're powerless.

  
 This time Keith was reassuring him; “yeah we will and then I'll kill him”

  
 Lance believed him; “good but you have to get in line for that.”

  
They went to sleep after that.

 

  
It was a few weeks later. Matt and Mr.holt had left with the rebellion. It was only their old team in the castle again. Lance was leaning against the wall eating a snack Hunk had made that morning. Keith walked in the kitchen; “can I have some?”

“nope” Lance answered. Keith moved his hands to take some but Lance raised his hands so the bowl was out of Keith's reach.

 “hey!!” Keith said. But Lance smirked. This was probably gonna end up in Keith kicking his ass but Lance would still have some fun; “what's the magic word?”

  
 “you're a dick?!” Keith said sarcastically.

  
“not even close!” he smirked even further.

  
“how about fuck you?” Keith said while reaching for the bowl.

  
 “heeeeh!!!” Pidge gasped as she came in the kitchen; “I'm telling dad you said that!” she faked an offended voice.

  
 Lance laughed but Keith threw her a confused look: “but your dad is not here for now why would he care about what I said!”

  
 “Shiro, I meant I'll tell Shiro!” Pidge explained.

  
 Keith made a little laugh; “I can't believe you called Shiro dad!”

  
 “believe it or not I'm still telling him! Why should I be the only one in this god damned ship who isn't allowed to swear!” she complained as she was walking out.

 Keith threw a glare at Lance; “great you got me in trouble with Shiro!”

  
 Lance grinned and muttered in Keith's ear ; “well I can think of a few ways I can make it up to you!”

  
 Lance was sure Keith would blush but he gave Lance a smirk ;”something like this?!” as he kissed Lance. Lance was kissing him back when Keith suddenly laughed , took the bowl from him and started running away. Lance stood there stunned for a second before running after him.

 

 

 

 

 


	12. Chapter 12

 They've been working hard, fighting for the last few weeks. They were eating breakfast when Shiro declared they were getting what Lance would call a _chill_ day; “we should go to swimming!” shiro added.

  
 “hate to blow your bubble but the pool is literally upside down!” Lance said. _Right_ Keith remembered the stupid altean pool.

  
 “I've fixed that! Just needed a few changes in the artificial gravity!” Pidge said.

  
 “okay then everyone go get changed and meet back in the common room in 5 minutes!” Shiro said.

  
 Keith expected Lance to show some enthusiasm, the boy loved everything that involved water. _Come on_ he even got excited over his daily showers. But Lance remained silent as they each made their way back to their room. Keith changed to his swim suit and went back to the common room everyone was there but Lance. Keith caught Allura staring at his pendant. He hadn't taken it off once since Lance had given it to him.  
She finally said; “that's an … _interesting_ necklace?!”

  
 “yeah Lance gave it to me!” Keith explained.

  
 “oh?! _Did he_ now?!” she asked with an amused voice.

  
 “yes” Keith frowned. He felt like he was missing something here. But at that moment Lance walked in, in his swim suit. Keith had seen the scar so many times now, but still everytime he felt a grip in his chest. Lance had been right. The scar didn't heal or get any better, it clung to Lance's skin as if it was burnt yesterday. And even though Lance had tried so hard to hide it, Keith had seen how he winced in pain everytime his hands came in touch with the skin there. he had asked Keith not to tell anyone about it.

  
  _Oh_ that's why he didn't show any excitement earlier. Lance probably had been worrying about others reaction. And now as Lance was standing hesitantly in the door way, Keith heard others gasp. Coran took a step towards Lance; “oh my boy” there was so much pity and concern in his voice. Keith looked at Lance; he looks uncomfortable. Keith knew Lance hated showing weakness to others. Not that Keith thought that scar was a mark of weakness, no if anything Keith believed it was a proof of Lance's courage. But Keith had learned that Lance didn't feel that way about it. So he tried to take everyone's minds off this; “I don't have that much experience in swimming but I'm pretty sure it involves _water!”_

  
 Shiro nodded in his way, understanding what Keith was trying to do. Coran finally said; ”right follow me”

  
 everyone started walking, Keith felt Lance's hand holding his own; “thanks” Lance whispered.

  
 Keith smiled at him and was rewarded with one of Lance's. Lance was walking very close to him. and again Keith couldn't stop staring at Lance's body; but this time for a very different reason because _damn_ Lance was hot. Keith unconsciously bit his lower lip.

 Pidge caught him; “you look like Hunk everytime he finds something delicious“, that made Lance grin, he whispered; “ oOoh, I'm something delicious!” low enough that only Keith could hear him.

  
 Hunk who was out of the loop said; “are we talking about eating?!”

  
 Pidge smirked; “no but Keith is certainly thinking about eating some parts of …”

  
  _“Pidge!”_ Shiro cut her with his dad voice. Keith felt grateful for having Shiro back once again if not only for the sake of having him back but also for the sake of getting Pidge under control.

  
 Shiro continued; “but if you want I'm sure Pidge would be glad to trap you two in the elevator for a few minutes.” _Scratch that . galra obviously had the right idea taking him._

  
He heard Lance's voice; “that was _you!_ You trapped us in the elevator!” Keith realized what Lance was talking about, he looked at Pidge; “you _didn't!”_

  
 But Pidge grinned; “did I plan it so you two would check out the pool on the same day and use the elevator at the same time, and then hack to the castle systems to trap you guys with each other half naked in a dark place so maybe one of you would pull a move on the other?!! … yes I _did”_

  
Keith sighed; “I really wish you would've just told us instead of going to that distant!”

  
 She shrugged; “hey don't blame it on me I wanted to tell you sooner but Allura thought you should figure it out on your _own!”_

  
 Allura gave a kind smile: “I really did thought you two would work it out on your own!”

  
 Pidge snorted; “please they would never find out if we hadn't told them”

  
 “I wouldn't say _never_ we would've realized _eventually!”_ Lance said.

 Keith raised his eyebrow at him; “you thought I _hated_ you!!”

  
 “well I did say _eventually,_ you know in a few years…10 years…20 years tops!” Lance joked. Everybody laughed.

 

  
 Lance had been smirking for some time now, he'd been winning at every single water game they've played so far. And as much as attractive Keith found it the competitive part of him wanted that cocky grin off Lance's face.

  
 Lance was sitting on Shiro's shoulder, the two of them had won against Allura and Pidge, Hunk and Allura. And right now they won against Pidge and Hunk.   
Lance yelled happily; “I'm the king of water! No one can beat me!”

  
 Keith gritted his teeth together _that's it!_ ; “I doubt that!”

  
 “oh it's on mullet”

  
Keith crawled on to Hunk's shoulders.

  
Lance grinned even further; “you're going down Keithy boy! Water is my home!”

  
 Lance was right, water was _his_ domain. If Keith wanted to win he had to find a strategy. He smirked when a idea came to his mind. Sure Lance was always able to turn Keith into a mess by few words. But Keith had found out that his touches would do the same to Lance.

  
 He raised his hands to Lance's face. The boy was ready to duck expecting a punch but instead Keith only caressed Lance's face gently with his hand, he tried to put all his love in his voice:” I thought _I_ was your home!” he moved his down slowly stroking Lance's neck and chest. Lance was looking at him with round eyes. _Now_ Keith shoved at Lance with both hands making the boy fall into the water. When Lance emerged he looked confused; “what…?”

  
 Keith smirked at him: “I beat you!”

 

  
After his defeat, Lance had been sitting on a seat near the pool, pouting and throwing snarky comments at everyone for the last hour. He hadn't looked at Keith once since then. Shiro threw a _go talk to him_ look to Keith. Keith sighed.

 Keith got out of the water. He felt Lance’s gaze lingering on him. A smirk came to his face as he crawled on to Lance's lap, he wrapped his legs around Lance and threw his arms around Lance's neck. Lance's hand came to rest on his waist but he still wouldn’t look at Keith. Keith tilted his head; “now who's the sore loser?!”

  
 Lance squinted his eyes at Keith, “you _cheated!!”_

  
 Keith drew his face closer to Lance's, they were sharing breaths; “I _won”_

  
 “you played _dirty!”_

  
 Keith pushed himself even closer to Lance and moved his mouth closer to Lance's so their lips were almost meeting; “I did what I had to do to get what I want!”

  
 “well you're not getting _anything_ else you might want” Lance pointed to himself.

  
 Keith laughed; “are you sure about that? I'm not the one with the half boner right now”

  
 “I _don't…”_ Lance stopped when he realized that he infact _did._ Keith laughed again.

” Oh shut your mouth mullet”

  
 Keith moved his mouth next to Lance's ears “why? Do you want me to use it for something else?”

  
 He actually heard Lance swallowing hard.

  
 “uh guys this is a family place!” Shiro said. _Oh shit_! Keith had forgotten that there were others there and he wasn't alone with Lance. He tried to get off of Lance, but Lance's hand hold him in place. Lance smirked; “really Shiro? Cause I'm not the one who keeps staring at Allura's boobs!”

  
“or her ass!” Pidge said, standings a bit farther from Keith and Lance, having the same evil grin as Lance. Lance held his hand up to her and she highfived it. Shiro didn't answer only started turning red. So Allura yelled ; _“LANCE!”_

  
“princess do you really want to yell at me? I mean I can just as _easily_ say what parts of Shiro _you've_ been thinking about?!”

  
 Allura didn’t yell instead she raised her eyebrow playfully; “oh I dare you to say it! Just remember I know a few things about that necklace I'd like to share with Keith!”

  
 Lance's face started going red again and he grew quiet.

 Allura smirked ; “yeah I didn't think _so!”_

 

  
 it was a few hours later. Lance was sitting next to Keith on his bed kissing Keith When finally Keith asked “what did Allura mean?!”

Lance kissed him again; “nothing”

“but” Lance kissed him more passionately. Keith wasn't stupid. he could tell Lance was distracting him from the question but that didn't seem to stop him from pulling Lance even closer. Lance's hand brushed the skin underneath Keith's shirt, Keith let out an unguarded laugh. _Oh no!_

 “what was that? Did you just _giggle?!”_

“no” but Lance's hand touched his stomach again and another laugh betrayed his words. _No no_ he'd tried so hard to hide this from Lance for so long! Lance tickled him again and another laugh came put of his mouth.

“you're _ticklish!”_ Lance sounded as if he had just found one of universe's secrets. He continued tickling Keith; “how did I not know about this?! oh the opportunities! Imagine all the times I could've beat you in fighting just by tickling!”

  
 Keith managed to say between laughs ; “that’s…chea..ting!”

  
 “oh is it?! _Mr. I did what I had to do to get what I want_!” Lance threw his own words back at him in a mocking voice. Before tickling him more mercilessly. He finally stopped when Keith was completely of breath.

 Keith waited a few minutes so he could breath normally again; “nice try! But you still haven't told me about the necklace”

  
 Lance sighed; “okay I'll tell you just don't freak out!” Keith nodded. Lance continued; “ when my mother gave me that she said it's been in our family for centuries. And they each gave it to their mate and I should … give it to mine!”

  
Oh _oh_ Keith's hand wrapped around the necklace _why would I freak out about that?! I love you you idiot!_

  
 Lance yelped; “how did you do that?!”

  
 Keith frowned in confusion; “do what?!”

  
 “you talked… in my head… I heard you in my head!!” _what is he talking about?!_

  
 Lance yelled again; “what the hell?!” he stared at Keith then at the necklace in Keith's hands and then at Keith again; “oh…that's how!” _what the fuck?!_

  
 Lance smirked; “really Keith you shouldn't use such a language!” _he's reading my mind?! How?!_

  
 Lance answered: “I think it's the necklace “ _so you can hear my thoughts if I'm holding it?_

Lance said: “apparently!” _that's amazing_

  
Lance smiled; “it really is…uhm…by any chance did you… did you do that when I was captured?!”

  
 Keith was surprised, Lance barely talked about his capture.

  
 “uhm I can still hear you” Lance pointed to Keith's hand that was still holding the necklace. He let go of it quickly. “yeah it was the only thing I had of you! “

  
 “that's _how!_ I heard your voice. You said you would come for me and you _did!”_

  
 Keith put his hands on both sides of Lance's face and pulled him closer so their foreheads were touching; “of course I did.” He kissed Lance. Lance's hand wrapped around him pulling him closer and closer as the kiss deepened as if trying to break them into each other, to make them collide , to make them become one. “so…are you up for the mating ceremony?”

 Lance looked at him with wide eyes; _“what?!"_

 "We have to make this _thing_ official!” Keith smirked pointing to the necklace. Lance stared at him for another moment; “what have I unleashed in you?!” Keith pulled him close again.

  
 It was next morning. Everyone was eating breakfast. Except for Keith who was hiding behind a pillar watching the others. Lance had taken a shower in his room this morning and was currently wearing one of Keith's shirts. It was sticking to his body making every muscle movement visible. Keith smirked. He wrapped his hand around the necklace; _I like my shirt on you!_

  
 Lance shot his head upwards; “what th…”

  
_It makes you look hot_

  
 Lance started looking around for Keith but Keith had chosen a spot ever he knew he would be safe from Lance's eyes.  
Hunk asked Lance; “buddy are you okay?”

  
Lance answered: “yeah I'm fine!”

  
_Ooh you're more than fine_

  
Lance started blushing a little. Hunk asked again: “are you sure? You look sick!”

  
_don't listen to him you look perfect! Absolutely eatable!_

  
“stop it!” Lance said.

  
_that's not what you said last night!_

  
 “you little …”

  
But Keith broke him off mid sentence; _again not what you said last night!_

  
“oh you are _so_ dead!”

  
_Yeah dead in love!_

  
 Lance stood in his chair letting out an exasperated _“ugh”_

  
“buddy who are you talking to?” Hunk asked.

  
“Lance is there something wrong?”Shiro asked.

  
 Keith let go of the necklace and came out from behind the pillar. “there is something wrong with Lance?” he asked in an innocent voice.

  
 Lance pointed his finger at Keith; “YOU! _YOU ASSHOLE!”_

  
 “Lance!” Shiro scolded him. Lance punched his fists at the table before sitting back down. Keith couldn't help smiling as he went to his seat next to Lance, he put a tiny kiss on Lance's head to make him less mad. But avoided looking at him as he sat down next to Lance and started his breakfast. He could feel Lance's death glare on his face but couldn’t stop smiling.

 “ouch!” Lance had kicked his feet under the table. Keith saw a smile finding its way to Lance's face.

  
 Pidge asked; “what is going on with you two?!”

  
 Lance said; “oh nothing new mullet’s being a jerk as usual!”

  
 Keith wrapped his hand around the necklace again; _really is that a way to talk about your mate?!_

  
 Lance glared at him ;” don't make me take that thing back from you!”

  
Keith fluttered his eyelashes at Lance. Lance rolled his eyes at him. _Oh how the tables have turned!_

 

 


	13. Chapter 13

 Their next mission was a couple days after that. They had to fight one of the remaining fleets of galra who were attacking a planet. Now they all piloted their own lions again. after the job was done, they all went down to the surface of the planet because the people wanted to thank them. It was right before Allura was saying it was time to head back that Lance heard a voice, _thunder_ and he looked up, it started raining. _Raining._ La _nce_ wasn't sure he wanted to laugh or cry. so he did both. he'd missed rain so much. it made him feel like home.

 From the corner of his eyes he caught Keith staring at him before asking Allura ;”Allura can we stay a bit longer?!” princess accepted.

  
 Lance was still looking up as water drops were wetting him. ”it’s raining” Keith didn't answer.

 Lance said: “it's beautiful” this time Keith answered: “ yeah it is” there was something in his tone that made Lance move his eyes from the sky to Keith. Keith wasn't looking at the sky, he was looking at Lance with admiration in his eyes as if Lance was something mesmerizing. At that moment Lance hit a puddle next to them making water splash all over Keith. Lance laughed and started running, Keith yelled: “Lance!” before chasing after him.

 _god_ he had missed this running in the rain as water droplets would run around him.

soon he made everyone else joined too.

 

  
 Next morning Lance felt horrible. as he opened his eyes in their bed. they've asked coran and coran _bless that man_ had found a bigger bed for them to share.

“Lance wake up we have training to do.” Keith was saying next to him.

“nope this is too comfy” he tried to pull Keith back to bed but his skin was too cold. “jeez mullet you are _freezing”_

  
 But Kieth said: “ no Lance _you're_ burning up” as he put a hand on Lance's forehead.

 “Maybe you should go to a pod?” he continued with a worried voice.

  
 “NO!” Lance sat so fast he almost fell off the bed. “I'm not going to a pod for a stupid cold, I’m always in the pods! I've been in them more than anyone else.”

  
 “that's because you're reckless”

  
 Lance raised an eyebrow at him; “ _I'm_ reckless?! _Mr shoot first ask questions later?_!”

  
 Keith rolled his eyes at him and forced him to lie down: “weren't you sick?! try to rest”

  
 Lance pouted at him; “you’re not gonna stay with me?!”

  
 “no you big _baby!_ some of us still have jobs to do and someone has to tell Allura why your stupid ass is missing again”

  
 “you _love_ my ass!” Lance teased.

  
  Keith threw a mischievous smile at him; “yeah I do”, he leaned down to kiss Lance. But just as their lips were about to meet, he continued; “but not enough to risk getting a cold” he chuckled as he started walking away.

 _Unbelievable!_ Lance threw a pillow at him “you....”  
Keith laughed again; showing cute dimples. “get some rest”

 

The next few months they spend finding what was left of galra and destroying them. Lance was right about the scar though it never healed or faded away it still hurt everytime someone touched it. But Lance had gotten used to it. He wore it proud. Well probably because of all the times Keith had told him it was something to be proud of.  
Eventually they did find Lotor on one of the last galra fleets. He was trying to run away on a ship when Pidge blew it off. Which gained her whines from both Lance and Keith since they each wanted to kill Lotor personally.

 Today they had defeated the last part of the galra empire. And the planet that was under those galra's custody had asked them to enjoy this day with them. Lance had head on hill accepted without letting anyone else get a say . and he didn't regret it specially right now that he was standing in the ocean looking at Keith.

 Keith was standing in the shore testing the water with his toes. He looked absolutely adorable ;” come on desert boy it won't bite” Lance teased.

  
 “but the water's so cold” Keith whined.

  
 Lance let out a little laugh ; “well if you would just get in here I'd _make_ you warm”

  
 Keith rolled his eyes but got in making his way to Lance. When he finally get close to Lance threw his arms around the boys waist drawing him closer: "soooo how do you like my element so far?!"

 Keith tilted his head: "have you notice we always end up on your element! it would be nice to see some fire once in a while!"

Lance joked: "no thanks I have enough experience with burning"

Keith looked down at Lance's scar and guilt came to his face. _No_

"hey my eyes are up here!" Lance joked as he lifted Keith's chin with one hand: "and I didn't mean that! I was talking about how I'm already burning in your love!"

 Keith visibly cringed: "Lance that is so cheesy!"

 Lance grinned: "well incase you haven't noticed I'm a cheesy guy! and you loooove it quit pretending you don't!"

Keith rolled his eyes but drew Lance closer for a kiss.

" no my eyes they burn! quit making out!" pidge yelled at them from the beach. they both laughed.

 Lance yelled: "stop acting innocent pidgey! this isn't  even the worst you've seen from us!"

"and I still have nightmares from the last I walked in on you two!" Pidge answered.

 Lance laughed as Keith turned red: "aw babe you are too cute!"

 

 


	14. Chapter 14

  After the beach the people on that planet invited them to join their celebration. right now Keith was standing next to Lance listening to alien music when a song that was certainly from earth played. Keith looked around to see who had put it on and saw Pidge standing next to the music box giving Lance a thumbs up.

  
_There's no way to say this song's about someone else_

_Every time you're not in my arms_

_I start to lose myself_

_Someone please pass me my shades_

_Don't let ‘em see me down_

_You have taken over my days_

_So tonight I'm going out_

 

“care to dance?” Lance asked talking Keith's hand in his own placing a kiss on the knuckles.

  
_Yet I'm feeling like_

_There is no better place than right by your side_

_I had a little taste_

_And I'll only spoil the party anyway_

_'Cause all the girls are looking fine_

_But you're the only one on my mind_

 

Keith said “ cheesy idiot” but went to dance with him.

  
_La da dee_

_La da dee doo_

_La da da me_

_La da da you_

_La da dee_

_La da dee doo_

_There's only me_

_There's only you_

_La da dee_

_La da dee doo_

_La da da me_

_La da da you_

_La da dee_

_La da dee doo_

_When you were gone I think of you_

 

It was a happy stupid love song and was completely Lance like. keith smiled at that thought.

 

_All these places packed with people_

_But your face is all I see_

_And the music's way too loud_

_But your voice won't let me be_

_So many pretty girls around_

_They're just dressing to impress_

_But the thought of you alone has got me spun_

_And I don't know what to say next_

 

“I'm so judging your music taste right now” Keith said.

 

_Yet I'm feeling like_

_There is no better place than right by your side_

_I had a little taste_

_And I'll only spoil the party anyway_

_'Cause all the girls are looking fine_

_But you're the only one on my mind_

 

“oh shut up MCR” Lance joked.

  
_La da dee_

_La da dee doo_

_La da da me_

_La da da you_

_La da dee_

_La da dee doo_

_There's only me_

_There's only you_

_La da dee_

_La da dee doo_

_La da da me_

_La da da you_

_La da dee_

_La da dee doo_

_When you were gone I think of you_

_When you were gone I think of you_

 

Lance was singing with it. God he's an idiot. _My idiot!_

  
_I pretend the night is so beautiful_

_Take a photo with the bros_

_La da dee_

_La da da doo_

_They won't see through my disguise_

_Right here behind my eyes_

_Replaying in my mind_

_La de da_

  
They didn't as much as dance as mess around laughing. It was always like that when Keith was with Lance, he couldn't help laughing.

 

  
_Yet I'm feeling like_

_There is no better place than right by your side_

_I had a little taste_

_And I'll only spoil the party anyway_

_'Cause all the girls are looking fine_

_"But you're the only one on my mind"_

 

 Lance sang alone before kissing him: _"god_ I love you so much!"

 Keith smiled: "not as much as I love you!" and kissed him back.

  
_La da dee_

_La da dee doo_

_La da da me_

_La da da you_

_La da dee_

_La da dee doo_

_There's only me_

_There's only you_

_La da dee_

_La da dee doo_

_La da da me_

_La da da you_   
_La da dee_

_La da dee doo_

_When you were gone I think of you_

_When you were gone I think of you_

 

 “I still can't decide whether they're sweet or gross!” Hunk said as soon as the song finished.

  
  _“gross_ definitely gross” Pidge said. Keith and Lance laughed and joined the others.

  
 A couple of hours later after drinking a lot of that planet's traditional drink ,every one was drunk. Shiro had even let Pidge have some. Now some alien was trying to flirt with Lance. _over my dead body!_  Keith snapped at her; “if I were you I'd back off cause this guy here is _mcclaimed!”_

 Pidge snorted: “ couples really do start to sound like each other” everyone was laughing.

 Lance said; “oh he's just drunk… a very _very_ hot drunk” 

  
 Keith's attention came back to Lance. _he's the hot one!_ he started stroking Lance’s face; “have I ever told you I love the color of your skin?!"

 Lance both laughed and shuddered under his touch: "yeah babe every single time you get drunk!"

 Keith smirked; "but I haven't told you why?!", he bit Lance's ear before whispering; "It's golden reminds me of melted caramel, makes me want to taste every inch of you” Lance swallowed hard. He pointed to the drinks and told the others; “ whatever that stuff is we're taking some of it with us”

 Keith started kissing down his neck. Lance gasped and shuddered under his mouth.

  
  _“ew”_ Pidge said.

  
 “I changed my mind you _are_ gross!” Hunk added.

  
 “guys we talked about this keep whatever _that_ is in your bedroom” wow even in his drunken state Shiro wouldn't stop scolding them.

  
 “fine” Keith pulled Lance after him. They didn't make it to the bedroom. They barely made it to the common room. They ended up on one of the common room's couches.

 Keith's last thought before falling asleep in Lance's arms were that they probably should move.

  
 He woke up to a scream and reached for his blade as he half sat. Lance woke up next to him too; “what the …” he fell silent as he saw the others. Everyone were staring at Lance and Keith sitting naked on the couch. Keith thanked god for the sheet that was covering their half bottom parts. Lance started laughing. But Keith only blushed.

  
 “unbelievable” Shiro said.

  
 “you're disgusting!” Pidge said.

  
 “truly disgusting” allura added.

  
 “in the _common_ area!” coran shook his head.

  
 “I don't think I can ever sit on _that_ couch again!” Hunk added. Lance laughed more and more at each comment. Keith wanted to strangle him.

  
 “oh come on guys can you really tell me you could resist this beauty if he told you he wanted you right then right there” Lance said making everyone groan at him and Keith blush even harder.

  
 “so you guys up for the rest of the show or do you have things to do” Lance joked.

 Everyone left as soon as they could in the fear of Lance actually giving them a show.

 Keith sighed while hiding his face in Lance's neck; “that was embarrassing!” Lance chuckled.

  
 They ended up moving that couch to their room since everyone else refused to sit on it.

 It became a place for Lance and Keith to cuddle and watch movies. _God_ Lance made Keith watch so many movies. But most of the time instead of watching the movie Keith found himself watching Lance. He loved how excited Lance got while watching them and how he could quote each one of them.

 

  
 It'd been two years since they had defeated the last galra. Now they would move across the galaxy helping people. There were still bad guys and criminal groups but none of them ever became as powerful as galra. Voltron was bringing piece to the Universe. They had started visiting earth regularly.

 Lance had taken Keith to visit his family everytime. Keith had become very fond of them. After Lance's mom Keith's most favorite person in Lance's family was Benji, Lance's little brother. He was like a tiny Lance both how he looked and how he acted.

  
 Keith and Lance had bought a tiny house together which they shared everytime they were on earth.

  
 Keith was going home from dinner with Lance thinking about last week on the ship when Shiro had told them he and allura were having a baby;

  
_“guys I'm gonna be a dad!” Shiro said excitedly._

  
_“but you're already a dad!” Lance said._

  
_“what are you talking about Allura just told me I'm gonna become a dad” Shiro said again._

  
_“but you're already our space dad!” Lance joked. Shiro sighed._

  
_Pidge said; “I don't understand either how can you be a dad you're only seven!”_

  
_Shiro got that look on his face every time they joked about his birthday the look of I regret all my life choices._

  
_Keith allowed Lance and Pidge to tease Shiro for a couple more minutes and only stopped them when Shiro was on the verge of crying. He told Shiro they were just joking and were all happy for him._

Keith was thrown out of his thoughts by a loud beep. Lance was driving like a crazy man. “what's wrong with you?” Keith demanded.

  
 “nothing's wrong with me!”

  
 “yes it is. You've been acting crazy all day; First you want to go to a fancy dinner insisting we should wear tuxes then you act all weird during it. And now you're driving crazy! what's _up_ with you?”

  
 “you wanna know what's up with me? You _really_ wanna know?... actually you have to wait until we get home before I can tell you” Lance said anxiously. Keith was starting to get worried.

  
 they finally arrived home. As Lance was opening the door he turned to look at Keith;” this is why”

  
 Inside their house was filled with flowers and candles. A song was playing. Keith was sure it was the same one that was playing the first time Lance told him he loved him. _What is happening?_

  
 Lance got on one knee pulling out a ring. “what do you say mullet you gonna do this with me?”

  
 But Keith could only stare into his blue eyes.

  
 “are you gonna keep me on my knees?”

  
 Keith finally could think again, he smirked;” no that's for _later_ tonight”

Lance stared at him with wide eyes as he reached for the ring but as soon as he saw it;” Lance… did you bought this at Tiffany's?”

 Lance stood up;” yeah how…”

 Keith interrupted him; “I was there yesterday looking for a ring with Pidge. She said this was such a me ring” Keith was looking at the ring closely. “why were you looking for rings” Lance asked.

  
 “obviously because I was gonna propose“ Keith suddenly remembered their situation. Lance was proposing and he hadn't answered yet.

  
 “you were…wait so I finally beat you at something?! YES!!” Lance pulled a smug face.

  
 “so do you _want_ an answer?” Keith asked.

  
 “come on mullet you were gonna propose! Your answer can't be _no”_

  
 Keith put the ring on “of course it's yes! And don't call me mullet I don't even have one anymore!”

  
 Lance kissed him; “and I'm still mad at you for cutting it so I'm gonna call you mullet until you grow it back and then you would have a mullet so I can still call…”Lance was rambling. Keith kissed him again both to shut him up and for the sake of kissing him.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


	15. Chapter 15

 Lance had been awake for the last hour watching Keith asleep on top of him. Even after all this time sometimes he couldn't breath when he saw how pretty Keith was. It has been a month since Lance proposed. They were back on the ship again. Keith slowly moved his head up with messy hair; “hey” _god he's too gorgeous_ _to be mine._

 “marry me?” Lance said.

 Keith with sleepy eyes said: “what?”

“marry me?!”Lance asked again.

 Keith looked at him with wide eyes; “Lance, I _am_ marrying you, when we get back on earth in 3 months, _remember?!”_

 Lance kissed him while rolling over so now he was on top of Keith. “no I mean marry me _now,_ marry me _today”_ Lance murmured between kisses. He could feel Keith's lips curl into a smile underneath his own lips; “okay”

 

 It was almost afternoon. They hadn't found any suits to wear but Coran had offered them the traditional clothes of Altea. They had put seats in the observation deck. All 7 of them were in the deck. Hunk was Lance's best man and Shiro was Keith's. Pidge was gonna be the one who married them.

 She started talking; “as y'all know we're here just because these two gays couldn't wait another day to get married, which I really don’t get the point ; it's not like you need permission or anything we all know you're banging each other all the time!” Lance was laughing. Keith just sighed. And pinched his nose.

  
 _“Pidge”_ Shiro said.

  
 She continued with a smirk; “okay calm your tits Shiro, where was I? Oh right I was saying how they're doing it all the time. Seriously you guys have _no idea_ how many times I've caught them in the middle of the action. Like, There isn't a _single_ room in this castle that these two haven't done it in. I swear They have no impulse control, They have tried it on everyone's bed ...”

  
 Allura interrupted her with a shriek; _“WHAT?!”_

  
 Keith had turned into a very dark shade if red. Lance was trying to hold back his laughter; “Pidge this is supposed to be our _wedding_ not our _funeral!”_

  
 _“the_ point is ...“

  
 This time Keith cut her off; “oh there _is_ a point I thought you were just embarrassing us.”

  
 Pidge grinned; “well you know two birds one stone! Anyway the point is that I've seen how physically in love they are and I've also seen how emotionally in love they are. How they can calm each other how they protect each other. How they can make the other smile in the middle of crying. And even though I've seen them fight over _every single damn thing!”_

  
 It was Lance's turn to interrupt; “ we don't fight over _everything!”_

  
 Pidge raised an eyebrow; _“really?!_ I've even seen you fight over who loves who more. You literally had this conversation; ‘I love you’, ‘I love you more’, ‘no I love you more’ and then you started fighting!!”

  
 Everyone laughed at this including Lance. _Okay yes_ maybe they did fight over everything. So what? It only made the make up sweeter and it never was serious.

  
 Pidge continued; “but even with all the fighting I still have never seen two people more in love!”

  
 Shiro cleared his voice pointing at himself and Allura. But Pidge said: “sorry Shiro it's true”

  
 Lance stuck his tongue out at Shiro and turned to look at Keith; “yes babe we are the space power couple! Approved by Pidge!”.

 Keith laughed a little which made his dimples look absolutely adorable. Lance stared at him in awe. Hunk's voice came from behind him; “Pidge you better hurry up or I think Lance is gonna start the honeymoon in front of all of us”

 Everyone laughed while Keith blushed... _aw cute wow maybe Hunk is right._

  
 Pidge grinned again; “Lance keep it in your pants for a few more minutes! Okay serious business, Keith do you take the stupid head to be your husband for all eternity? and buddy you should really think this through I mean it's _Lance!”_

  
 Lance expected Keith to doubt, to be hesitant. He knew he wasn't exactly the best but Keith didn't hesitate, not even for a second; “I do”

  
 Pidge joked; “your loss!” before turning to Lance; “what about you Lance? Do you take this alien to be yours forever? And do keep in mind that he might murder you in your sleep at any point god knows _I've_ thought about doing it a few times!”

  
 But Lance didn't laugh, he was panicking; could he really do this? What if one day Keith would finally see how much better he was than Lance?! he couldn't lose Keith!

  
 “you getting scared?” Keith's voice cut his thoughts. Keith was looking at him with a smirk but his eyes were full of love and support. And suddenly even a thousand _I do’s_ didn't seem enough, so Lance leaned down and kissed Keith. Keith put his hands around Lance's neck kissing him harder.

  
 “yeah... we're still not done yet, so if you could just stop kissing the groom for a second Lance, I could _make_ him the groom!” Pidge said.

  
 They broke off laughing, Lance said: “fine!... I do!”

  
 “by the power vested in me by me which is more than enough I pronounce you husband and husband! You may continue with your disgusting make out session.” They all laughed as Keith pulled Lance by his collar to kiss him.

  
 It was a bit later, they were all laughing and joking. Lance said; “Pidge I'm not sure if I should be mad at you or proud of you!”

  
 Pidge answered; “that was nothing wait till you see the video montage!”

  
  _“oh god!_ There is a video montage?!”

  
 She grinned evilly; “oh yeah” as she started putting it on.

  
 To be honest Lance was scared. Who knew what was on that thing and knowing Pidge she probably had found the most embarrassing moments.

  
 The video started playing. It started from the first time they were in blue and showed moments they have shared afterwards. Hunk had started crying. _he's so sensitive!_ after a few moments it was showing the famous bonding moment. Keith pointed at the screen and almost yelled; “you had that on video and you didn't tell him it happened?!”

  
 Pidge laughed; “sorry it was just so funny you looked so disappointed that he didn't remember!”

  
 Keith blew out his breath and crossed his arms but stayed silent so they started watching the rest until Pidge grinned; “this one's one of my favourites.!”

  
 _Oh shit._ Lance remembered this. It was few weeks before Shiro went missing;

_They were all walking down the hanger Lance was walking a little behind the group, they were talking , somehow they had ended up discussing kisses;_   
_“I don't wanna brag but I've been told I'm the best when it comes to kissing” Lance said._   
_Everyone groaned in denial._

_Keith said: “by whom? The mayor of your dreams?! I bet anyone you kiss tells you, you suck at it” everyone laughed at him._

  
_Lance frowned, crossed his arms and whispered low enough so no one would hear: “yeah well why don't you try it and tell me?!!”_

  
Keith was staring at him. Lance gave him a bitter smile; “you know sometimes your words hurt.” Keith took his hand in his own's; “hey if it's any consolation I was wrong you _are_ the best”

 Lance smiled at him and squeezed his hand. Keith continued; “plus if I had heard you I would've kissed you. _God_ knows that was what I was wondering about” Lance leaned in to kiss him.

  
 “you two were such pinning messes” Shiro looked at them and shaked his head.

 Keith grinned: "says the guy who had to be abducted by aliens for the  _second_ time until he finally acted on his crush!"

 Lance threw a proud smile to Keith.

 They watched the rest of the video, Hunk was still crying. Lance finally said: “dude chill out even my mom won't cry that much!” Hunk smiled a little and tried to stop.

  
 “when did you even had time to make this since _this_ morning?!” Lance asked Pidge.

  
 “I've had that for about almost _a_ year!”

  
 _“what?!”_ Keith and Lance asked.

  
 Pidge shrugged; “it's not my fault you guys are too slow! There were a few times that I almost proposed for you. And then when I finally had it all planned out; you two were gonna propose at the same time it was gonna be so funny! I wanted to record it all, Lance had to let me down one more time and decided to propose earlier!” she pouted.

  
 “Pidge you _are_ evil!” Lance said. Keith only looked at her with an open mouth.  
When the video finally finished.

 Keith said; “Pidge I have to say it you are kind of a stalker!”

  
 “what?! No! I'm just good at hacking into the ship's cameras”

  
 “Pidge half of those weren't even on this ship!”

  
 “what can I say I was invested in this ship!”

  
 Keith looked mad. But Lance wasn't. he was even a bit grateful to Pidge. There were moments in this video that he wanted to watch a hundred more times.

  
 It was hours later. Lance and Keith were lying nest to each other on their bed. Lance was brushing Keith’s soft hair with his fingers. Keith's head was on his chest on one of his hands he was looking up to Lance . his other hand stroking Lance's face. Keith said; “I love Pidge but I really don't think we should invite her at the real wedding, I don't think I can handle that much embarrassment infront of your family”

  
 Lance smiled: “first they're our family and second it was funny and you know it”

  
 “no it wasn't”

  
 “yes it was”

  
 “no it wasn't!”

  
 “you know I can do this all day, right?”

  
 “yes I know what a stubborn idiot you can be!”

  
 “yeah but I'm your stubborn idiot now! _Forever”_ Lance pointed at his ring; “no take backs!”

  
 “I'm already beginning to regret this” Keith teased.

  
 “oh I'll give you something to regret!” Lance started tickling him mercilessly. Keith was laughing so hard his face became red; “okay… okay… stop…I'll take it back” Keith said between laughs. Lance loved the sound of his laugh so much.

 

 Of course they did invite Pidge to the real wedding and she did manage to pull off an even more embarrassing speech.

 

  
It was almost two years after the wedding now. Lance remembered 9 months ago when Coran had told him that they had an altean technology that could grow a human baby from Keith and Lance's cells. Keith and Lance had been talking about adopting a kid but the thought of having a kid that had Keith eyes or his hair or his anything had made Lance so happy that he had almost kissed Coran. Coran had joked that he loved Lance but wasn't interested in him that way. And when he told Keith, he had become so happy. They decided that they didn't only want one but two babies. So now after 9 months the day that they could see the twins for the first time was here.

 Everyone were waiting outside the room. Lance was pacing he couldn't control his excitement. Keith was laughing at him; “Lance calm down!”

  
 But Lance started rambling; “we're gonna be parents! I'm gonna be a dad! How can I be dad? How can I raise someone else?! I'm still not done raising my self! And we live in space! In space Keith! How can we baby proof a space ship! What if they accidentally find our bayard! What if they accidentally open the air locker! They would get ejected to space! And what if they actually grow to be just like us! I mean we got on a space cat without telling anyone! What the hell? Imagine if they would just vanish one…”  
Lips were kissing him. “shut up Lance!” Keith said.

 Lance knew he was making Keith nervous too. Shiro put a hand on each of their shoulders; “guys you're gonna be great dads. I've seen how you both interact perfectly with Alfor. you're natural at this.”  
Lance felt a bit calmer but he hold on to Keith's hand for support. He told Shiro: “I still can't believe you named your kid Alfor that _poor_ kid!”

  
 “you should start worrying about your own kids I mean they're gonna be _some_ babies! being part human part galra part mermaid!” Hunk joked.

  
 Pidge added; “not to mention the worst part being part _Lance!”_ Lance tried to shove her _little gremlin_! but Keith hold him back. Lance looked into his eyes; “I hope they have your eyes!”

  
 Keith answered; “what?! No! if they don't have those blue oceans of yours we're sending them back!”

  
 “Keith!” Lance laughed.

  
 “how about you both get what you want” Allura said as she and coran walked in each with one baby in their hands.  
The girl had blue eyes and black hair and pale skin. The boy was more tanned with dark brown hair and purple eyes that looked exactly like Keith's . “he's my favourite!” Lance joked as Coran handed him to Lance.

“you can't pick favourites Lance!” Allura handed Keith the girl. Keith's eyes became gentle. “she's so tiny!” there were tears in his eyes.

  
 Lance teased him; “I can't believe Mr.tough is crying”

  
 Keith didn't take his eyes off of her but said: “shut up even from your voice I can tell you're crying too”

  
 “no I'm no…” Lance stopped when he touched his own face and felt the wetness.

  
 “I think we can all agree this is a moment to cry for” Coran said with a shaky voice.  
Lance looked up everyone had tears in their eyes. Lance loved them. all of them they were his family. And Lance couldn't find a better one.

 


End file.
